The Sheriff and the Outlaw
by Jfish007
Summary: Woody is going after an outlaw that had just stolen from a bank. The chase is on! When he catches the bandit, he finds out that he is in for way more than he bargained for! What adventures will await him and the people he runs into? WoodyxJessie Human Fic
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters except the ones I created...blah blah blah. I only own the story that I wrote for fun.**

CHAPTER 1

"Well Thunder, it looks like we finally get a break for once. Not that I don't like rounding up outlaws or anything; but its sure does feel good to take a breather. C'mon buddy, lets head home." Sheriff Woody said as he patted his black stallion on the neck. Thunder looked back at him with eager eyes to get home too.

Sheriff Woody had just gotten back from rounding up outlaws in the neighboring towns around the West and was happy to have gotten a break. He and Thunder were heading back to his town of Dallas which was the biggest city in Texas at that time.

Finally after a few days of travel, he and Thunder raced into town. Everyone knew who was coming up on the horizon because they could see a trail of dust coming from behind a black figure. No one could mistake who it was because Sheriff Woody had the fastest horse in the West. No other horse could leave a trail of dust like Thunder could. When he ran, it was like the earth was shaking, announcing the arrival of Sheriff Woody and his trusty steed, Thunder. People could hear them come from a mile away.

As Sheriff Woody got closer and closer to town, he could hear people shouting and waving, welcoming their sheriff back from his long trip away from home.

Thunder came to a graceful trot and Sheriff Woody reached down with his right hand and patted his stallion on the neck and said, "It sure does feel good to be home, huh partner."

Thunder responded with a wave of his head, which made Sheriff Woody smile and looked up to see a crowd before him waving and seeing the women throwing flowers at him.

Woody caught one of the flowers, smiled and winked at the young little cowgirl wearing a light blue dress in brown boot with beautiful blonde braids on each side of her head. The cowgirl looked up with her deep brown eyes and gave Sheriff Woody the biggest smile she could. This made Woody giggle inside. Seeing this little cowgirl smile was all that Woody needed to say that his time away from home was worth it. It was worth protecting his people, it was worth protecting little children like her, it was worth the risk he has taken and it was worth coming home to see his town safe again.

Unlike most of the outlaw towns in Texas that are in the middle of nowhere and are surrounded by dessert; Woody's town of Dallas was nothing like that. Dallas was covered in a blanket of grass. Sure the road was made of dirt, but everything else was green. The buildings were maintained every day, so they looked brand new. There were pastures with all kinds of livestock. Horses, cattle, goats, sheep and pigs were kept in the pastures on the edge of town where there are hills for them to graze on and lots of room for them to run. Woody always loved watching the animals play in the pasture when he could get time alone for himself. On rare occasion, would that ever happen because he was always so busy with the locals and traveling to round up outlaws.

Sheriff Woody headed to the stables which was at the back of the Sheriff's Office and tied Thunder up so that he could rest after a long day of traveling.

"You did great partner!" Woody said as he stroked Thunder's long black face. As he stroked Thunder's face, Thunder let out a whinny as though as he was saying the same thing back to his human companion. Woody let out a laugh and lightly hit Thunder on the forehead and playfully said, "Yeah, but I still think we need to get that nasty growth off your face! It's hideous!"

Woody always liked to tease Thunder about his white strip on his forehead that went down to his nose and called it a "nasty growth." Thunder on the other hand would always reply by letting out a few grunts as if to say that Woody should take his nasty growth of his head, which was his hat. Then Thunder would grab Woody's hat in his mouth and throw it up in the air.

"Hey give it back!" Woody playfully yelled and jumped up in the air to try and catch the now airborne hat.

"Alright, alright, you've had you fun. Now it's time for me to go check up on ole Prospector to see what he needs me to do." Be back in a while partner" Woody picked up his hat and went out of the stables.

**I was inspired to write this story by ChibiSaru70 on Deviantart. The picture that inspired me is called TS Outlaw-Tighten Up**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters except the ones I created...blah blah blah. I only own the story that I wrote for fun.**

CHAPTER 2

"Hey howdy hey Prospector." Sheriff Woody tipped his hat as he walked into the Sheriff's Office.

There wasn't much to the office. It was small room with a desk at the end of a square room, a wooden chair in front of the desk, a billboard with 'Wanted' pictures on them and a door behind the desk that lead to the jail portion of the Sheriff's office.

"Well, well, well. You're a sight for sore eyes!" the prospector said with his profound gentle voice.

"Good to see you too." Sheriff Woody said with a smile, "What do you have for me today? Help paint the school? Round up some cattle? Help with –"

Before Woody could finish his sentence the prospector sharply interrupted him, "Woody! Just slow down, you do too much already. Go out and relax for a few days. I don't want you to wear yourself out when you just now got back. Now go." The prospector waved his hand, motioning Woody out of the door.

Not wanting to start an argument, he quietly turned around and left.

_Well even if I'm not doing anything, it will be nice to kick back and relax for a while._ Woody thought to himself.

He walked out to the town and spoke with the locals for a while to see what has been going on while he was away. The sheriff learned that the school had added two more rooms for students to do more activities in, there had been a few large rodeos in town and that there is going to be a big celebration in a couple of days that the towns people are putting together for his return. Sheriff Woody really felt loved in his town. He loved how important and needed he was. Although he would have felt loved without the celebration, he was happy that the town's people cared about him that much to throw him a welcome home party.

The next day, Woody took Thunder out to the pastures. Once he let Thunder go socialize with the other horses, he started to head out of the fence when he was suddenly caught by surprise by a cane around his neck.

"Whoa! Hey!" The sheriff jumped, turning around to see who nearly scared him half to death. "Oh, it's just you Bo." He said with relief.

Bo unhooked Woody with her cane and smiled at him and with her piercing blue eyes; she locked her gaze into his.

"Howdy sheriff." She said in her honey-coated voice. "How's it going? Haven't seen you round here in a while.

Lost for words, he had to think fast of what he was going to say. He didn't know why, but every time he saw her, he was at a loss of words. This frustrated him because he could never have a nice conversation with Bo without making a fool of himself.

_Think Woody! Think! Think! _ Woody was trying to make himself say something, but he couldn't think of anything to say until a long awkward silence.

Finally breaking away from her gaze, he was able to speak, "I, uh…was away for a while, and, now I'm back."

"For how long? I hope to see you around more before you leave again. It's sure been awful quiet around here without you, ya know." Bo replied looking up at Sheriff Woody.

"I'm not sure. Yeah, me too, it's nice to see you. I…" Woody was suddenly dazed and turned bright red when Bo interrupted him by placing a kiss his cheek.

His eyes followed her when she turned to walk away. She looked over her shoulder, gave him a wink and smiled. He smiled back and tipped his hat to her.

Walking to his favorite spot on top of a hill that looked over the whole town, he sat under the biggest oak tree.

Looking over the town, he thought to himself if he should tell Bo what he thinks of her. _What should I tell her? Do I tell her I like her? I mean, I've known her for so long…but I am gone quite a bit and I don't want her to get hurt if anything happens to me. I know she has liked me for a long time, so why shouldn't I tell her?_ Woody pondered this thought for some time. Not realizing how late it was, Woody looked up to the sky and noticed that the sun had disappeared. He decided he should head home to get a good night's sleep for the big day tomorrow celebrating with the towns people.

The next day, Woody got up to go check up on Thunder to take him on a morning ride along the town. He walked to the pastures to find Bo feeding Thunder in the stables.

"Howdy ma'am." The sheriff said tipping his hat to her, walking up them and patting Thunder on the neck.

"Morning sheriff." Bo said with beaming blue eyes and a smile that could light up the sky.

As Woody started getting Thunder saddled up, he hoped that Bo would stay long enough so that he could at least try to talk to her without acting like a complete idiot.

"S-so, um, what are you doing this afternoon?" the sheriff tried saying without stuttering too much.

"Well I am going to help set up for your celebration in a little bit, but other than that, not much. It's a big day today; everybody is pulling together to make this a real good ole show down for their favorite sheriff." Bo said with the most delicate voice.

"I appreciate it, I really do. Thanks Bo. But, I, uh…w-was wondering, if…if maybe you would want to come along with me and Thunder today…for just a while that is…of course only if you want too, but if not I totally will understand…but I was hoping t-that –"

Woody was abruptly interrupted when Bo placed an innocent kiss on his lips. He wrapped his arms around her waist. As soon as she felt his arms around her waist, she unlocked her lips from his and looked into his warm chocolate eyes and with one word replied, "Yes."

It took Woody a second to realize what just happened. And then he looked up to see that they weren't alone. The prospector came running in as fast as his little stubby legs could carry his very round frame and he was yelling frantically for the sheriff.

"Woody! Woody! I've been looking everywhere for you! Something bad has happened! The bank has just been robbed!" He could barely finish his sentence because he was so out of breath that Woody let go of Bo and went to the prospector who was leaning against the wooden doors of the stables.

"What? Who could have done this! Did you see where they went?" Woody asked now shocked and dismayed that something this bad could have happened in his town.

"No, not they…" the prospector was trying to catch his breath, "She…the locals said they saw someone rob the bank, not five minutes ago! They say she has fiery red hair and had a crazy look in her eyes like she was going to do something, and before you know it she just robbed the bank! No one has ever seen her before."

"Where did she go? Did anyone see which direction she was heading in?" Woody's voice was starting to get louder and faster the more he talked because there is nothing he loves more than to catch himself an outlaw. Of course he wasn't happy that this happened in his town, he was ready to defend it with everything that he had.

"They say she was heading towards Dead Man's Cove. If she gets there Woody, you won't have a chance of finding her!" The prospector said with desperation and anxiety in his voice.

Woody whistled as loudly as he could and Thunder was at his side the moment he heard his human companion call for him. The sheriff jumped onto Thunder and said to Bo that he would take her out on another time. This made Bo blush, but before she could respond, her sheriff rushed out of the stables and ran Thunder faster than he had ever ran before to catch the outlaw who was riding on the horizon. Woody pushed Thunder even harder so that he would not lose sight of his newest nemesis.

**I was inspired to write this story by ChibiSaru70 on Deviantart. The picture that inspired me is called TS Outlaw-Tighten Up**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters except the ones I created...blah blah blah. I only own the story that I wrote for fun.**

CHAPTER 3

The sun was getting higher and higher in the sky and Sheriff Woody was gaining on his target. He could start to see the perpetrator's blazing red hair flying wildly in the wind. Woody would frequently watch her turn her head to see how fast he was catching her, and whenever she looked back at the sheriff she saw how quickly he was coming up on her. Looking forward again, the outlaw saw an opportunity to get away. She was coming up to Dead Man's Cove and thought to herself that she could lose her pursuer in the maze of canyons. Luckily for Woody he knew most of the canyons like the back of his hand, so he knew he had the advantage.

Dodging left and right in the canyon, the red-haired bandit was moving deeper and deeper into the maze. Unfortunate for her she didn't know where she was going and she was going to soon realize she had cornered herself.

"C'mon Thunder, Yah!" Woody said in a stern, determined voice, "she's heading to a dead end and then she will have nowhere to go. Stay on her tail!" Thunder gave out a huff and ran harder and harder to keep up. This was the first time Thunder was having trouble catching up to an outlaw on their horse. Usually he would have no trouble chasing them down and catching them, but this particular horse he was chasing gave him a bit of a challenge.

"We got her now Thunder! Get ready!" As Woody said this he grabbed his lasso that was tied to the saddle and started to unravel it.

Swinging passed another corner; the red-haired bandit realized that she had run into a trap. She let out a yell, which Sheriff Woody could only make out as a command for the horse to stop. There was a big cloud of dust rising up in front of him as he saw her make a hasty halt.

The walls of the canyon were so high that if someone where to look up at them, they would fall over on their back. They were the most severe and jagged walls known to man. Plus the bright colors of orange and red made everything hotter and dryer.

With Woody only having a few seconds to react before she was lost in the cloud of dust, he launched his lasso as hard as he could. Yanking on his lasso, he wrapped it around the head of his saddle and pulled Thunder away from the cloud of dust and stopped instantly, causing a second cloud of dust.

Once both dust clouds settled, Woody could finally meet his nemesis face to face. Still keeping his lasso tied to the saddle, he jumped off Thunder and walked over to the flaming red-haired bandit.

Woody thought it was unusual to see such a young lady as being an outlaw. She didn't look like one. In fact, she was wearing clothes that suited a farm girl than a bandit. She was wearing a white blouse with yellow décor on the top and on the end of the sleeves, a bright red hat, blue jeans and cow-painted chaps. Not only did her clothes seem odd, but her complexion showed no sign of a hard life as an outlaw. Her skin looked pale and soft; unlike the roughness and burnt skin of an outlaw. She had stunning emerald eyes that looked as though they were once cheerful, but something was in the way which made them cold as ice; and her hair didn't seemed to be greasy or abused like those of an outlaw. This made Woody stumble in his head a bit because none of this made any sense. His eyes trailed up and down her, trying to figure this out. He walked up to her, put his hand on the reigns of her horse and met her death stare.

"I'm not going back there. You can't stop me." She said with a determined, yet appealing voice.

Woody could tell by her accent, she was from the southern part of Texas.

Sheriff Woody looked at her and gave out a deep breath, "I can either do this the easy way, or the hard way. Your choice, but I can't let you go."

She wasn't going anywhere anytime quickly. Woody had lassoed both her arms to her body, and he wasn't about to let her go after a spending half of the day pursuing her.

He called for Thunder, and Thunder was at his side in a moment. Woody untied the lasso from his saddle and turned to the red-haired bandit to properly tie her up. When he turned around, he saw that his lasso was empty. She had escaped!

Sheriff Woody looked frantically to see where she had gone. Once he saw her running, he quickly gave chase. He had to admit that she was giving a pretty good fight, but the sheriff was use to all of the escape attempts that the other outlaws threw at him. Woody was quick on his feet and caught up to her. This time he wasn't going to take any chances. Woody dove for her and caught her around the waist which caused them both to fall flat on their faces. He did not expect her to react so quickly and before he knew it, he was the one struggling to get away. She had spun around and grabbed him by the neck and caught him in a head lock. Woody then used his weight and pushed them both over again causing her to let go of his head. Once Woody got up he swiftly seized her wrists and pinned her to the ground. He swung his knees on either side of her and pinned her body to the ground with his body weight.

She looked up at him with disapproving eyes and said, "You have to let me go! You don't understand!"

"Oh I understand all right! You robbed a bank in my town! And now I'm bringing you in. I think I understand." Woody said in his deep stern voice.

Both of them were out of breath, so when Woody picked up his opponent, she didn't struggle much.

When they got back to the horses, Woody tied her back up and made sure to tie both her hands and feet. Next he lifted her up onto the back of Thunder and tied her snow-white horse to the saddle. Before he forgot, he went to get both of their hate that fell off during the fight. Bringing them back, he placed his hat back on top of his head, and he placed the red hat back on top of his now, prisoner's head. He then lifted himself onto Thunder and made sure that his prisoner would not escape.

They started to head back out of the canyon when Woody saw that they only had a few hours of light left.

"Looks like we will have to camp for the night," Woody said half to himself and half to his prisoner.

"Fine," the prisoner said, not really caring about anything, but the means of escaping.

The sheriff was used to camping outside for long periods of time, so this wasn't a big deal to him, but this was his first time ever camping with a prisoner, let alone a girl. He wasn't sure what kind of night this one was going to be. But he knew for sure this was going to be a night he wouldn't easily forget.

**I was inspired to write this story by ChibiSaru70 on Deviantart. The picture that inspired me is called TS Outlaw-Tighten Up**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters except the ones I created...blah blah blah. I only own the story that I wrote for fun.**

**Sorry that I haven't updated! I've been so busy! The past few weeks have consisted of moving, writers-block, and college starting up! but here you are! I made sure this one was pretty ling to make up for the time that I haven't been wrtting**

CHAPTER 4

Woody was scouting along the canyons walls to look for a safe place to rest for the night so that he and his prisoner didn't have to travel through the maze of rock which could get dangerous at night. Not only could they get lost, they could also run into no so friendly people, and coyotes.

After looking for a while, Woody finally found a deep cave within the walls of the canyon. As he led Thunder and his prisoner, along with her horse into the cave, Woody looked over his should to watch the last bit of sunlight lick the top of the canyon wall.

He then checked in his saddle bag to see if he still had any wood from his last travel. Luckily he had found a few small pieces of wood and a match. Taking the match, he set the wood on fire to create light and warmth for the cold night to come.

He had taken off both of the horses saddles and arranged them next to the fire across for each other. Woody had been a gentleman and untied her legs, but he was not going to untie her hands or let her out of his sight because of all the trouble she gave him earlier that day. He had tried to help her down next to the fire, but she rudely denied help and sat against her saddle in front of the fire. Woody did the same and sat against his saddle. He couldn't help but observe her every move. She was not like the rest of the outlaws that he had captured. Somehow she was different, but he couldn't figure out why. He knew there was more to this story and he needed to know everything.

Sheriff Woody wasn't like the rest of the other sheriffs' in town. Instead of accusing everybody who did wrong and taking them straight to jail, he would want to know why they did it and he would do a thorough investigation because he hated the thought of punishing the innocent and blaming everyone for something that they didn't do.

Without realizing how long he had been staring at her, she finally blurted out in an upset tone, "What are you looking at!"

His trance was finally broken. Looking at her, he tried to explain himself.

"I. I'm sorry. I didn't mean too. It's just that I can't help but wonder why you of all people would do something like this. I mean you just don't look like someone who would do something like rob a bank." Woody looked at her with confusing eyes

"Yeah well, why would you care anyways? You're just like any other sheriff out there. You catch a bad guy. You throw 'em in jail. You don't care about why we did it. You wouldn't even believe me if I told you. So why would I bother telling you anything?" The prisoner said with an angered, almost sad tone.

"Well now, how can you say that when you don't even give me a chance to listen? I know where you're coming from. Trust me. But from what I see, you don't look like an outlaw. But I guess I've been wrong before huh?" Woody said as he watched her gaze back at him questioningly.

"So that's it huh? You're not gonna yell at me, err something to say what a bad person I am and how I should pay back everything and more and threatin' how long I'm gonna be rotting in jail for?" The prisoner said in a low careful/questioning tone.

"Well I could if you want me too, but I don't see the point in it right now. If you want too, I can save that for the mornin'. How's that sound? Woody said and he gave a little smile from the side of his mouth.

This made the fiery red head giggle a bit, but not so much as to seem like she let her guard down.

"Well I tell you what…you're not like the other sheriffs 'round here. Names Jessie by the way."

"Jessie eh? Well it's a pleasure ma'am." Woody said as he tipped his hat.

Woody's calm and relaxing voice made Jessie suddenly feel less tense. Even though she knew that she was going to jail the next morning, she felt in a way, safe with Woody around. She looked up at him to see him take off his hat, set it next to his side and run his fingers through his chocolate brown hair. He then shook his head, causing his hair to fly in all directions. Once he stopped, Jessie could help but laugh at his messy hair that stood up and out in all directions.

Woody had never heard her laugh before until now and he looked up to see what she was laughing at. He knew as soon as he saw her finger pointing right at him. Taking his fingers, he ran them through his hair to fix the mess he had made. Smiling as well, he let out a laugh because he could only imagine what he looked like, and with the way Jessie was laughing; he knew he had to look ridiculous.

"Thanks Jessie. Thanks for making me feel insecure now." He said smiling.

"You're welcome. I'm really good at it if you need any more help." Jessie said still laughing.

At this point Jessie had completely let her guard go because she felt as though she and Woody could become great friends. Even though she knew it wouldn't happen, Jessie wished that they could have met in a different situation.

"Well now since my hair is back to normal, what else shall we talk about?"

"Hmm…I don't know. What if –"

Jessie was suddenly interrupted by Thunder who came up behind Woody and started makes low sharp grumble sounds.

Jessie was quite puzzled by this, but Woody looked like he didn't take any delight in this. To Jessie's surprise, Woody sprang up and stomped the fire out. He came over to Jessie and as soon as he did she ask, "What are you doing? Why did you –"

"Shh!" Woody quickly responded as he put his hand over Jessie's mouth to stop her from speaking.

Releasing his hand from her lips, she whispered, "What's goin' on?"

"We're not alone…" Woody whispered back.

Woody took Jessie by the arm and they both moved slowly and quietly as far away from the entrance of the cave as possible. It was a good thing that Woody checked out the cave before they settled down. He had found a small crack in the cave that was a perfect hiding spot just in case something like this happened. It was a crevice on the floor of the cave that was hidden by a few boulders. He and Jessie could fit down there with a couple of feet of free space to move around, but not much else.

"Jessie, I know this may seem strange, but you have to get down that hole just in case these people aren't what they seem. Just in my experience, hiding is the best thing to do just until I know who we are dealing with." Woody said in a rush.

Woody strapped up Thunder and Jessie's horse and told Thunder to make sure they get away and be back for them in the morning when it's safe.

Woody couldn't hide the horses, and they would give away the hiding place of Jessie and him. So he sent both of them away.

"Thunder, take Jessie's horse –"

"Lightning."

"What?"

"Her name is Lightning."

"Of course it is..."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing! I don't have time for this. Just get down there. Trust me."

Thunder and Lightning ran off so that they wouldn't give Jessie and Woody away just in case these people were not to be dealt with.

Woody climbed down after Jessie and took a rock that he could relatively move and hide them even more.

Listening to what was going on above them; he could make out that there were at least three or four men making their way into the cave. He couldn't quite make out what they were saying because they were talking pretty low, and they were at the mouth of the cave.

Finally after a while of trying to decipher what they were saying, Woody gave up and turned around to see if Jessie was okay. Not realizing how little room they had, he felt awkward and a little embarrassed by how close they were. He had officially only met her a few hours ago and now they were put into this awkward situation, not exactly an ideal first impression.

Jessie had tried not to make a sound while Woody was trying to listen in on what was going on, but she couldn't help but have thoughts racing through her head of the kind of person he was. Not only that, but what kind of sheriff he was. He wasn't like the rest. He was different. Jessie liked that about him. A lot. She knew she still had to pay for what she did, but in a way she was glad that she met him. Maybe he would understand if she told him her side of the story. Maybe he could even help her. Just maybe.

Jessie was on her knees crouching down as low as she could. Of course she wasn't at all comfortable. She was in a tiny hole in a cave hiding from strangers. Jessie felt that every time she moved a little, it could be heard for miles. Even breathing was hard because she felt like she could give away their position at any moment.

When, finally, Woody tuned toward her after giving up on eavesdropping, he didn't realize how little space they had and bumped his shoulder right into her head. Not only was it hard for Woody to sit down, it was near impossible to have any space for himself. Jessie and Woody fumbled around to try and arrange themselves in a comfy manner without making noise. This of course was very awkward for both of them since they didn't even really know each other and Jessie's hand were still bound, so not even Jessie could do much in the way of positioning herself.

Eventually they ended up sitting across from one another with their backs against the walls. But the hole wasn't big enough for them to have leg room, so both of their legs intertwined with one another. It was the best they could do. Unfortunately, both of them didn't know how long they would have to stay like that. Both of them accepted that fact and dealt with it; awkward or not.

"Well I guess we should just wait here for a while to see if they leave or not" Woody said quietly to himself.

Both of them drifted off to sleep since they had been up for most of the night talking, and now they were stuck with nothing to do but sit still and wait.

A couple hours later, Woody was woken up by Jessie shaking his shoulders.

"Woody. Woody wake up…Woody."

"Wha–what? Jessie? What is it?" Woody said sluggishly waking up.

"Hey Woody I overheard them talking and remember when I said that you would believe me if I told you why I robbed the bank?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Listen." Jessie said motioning with her head for Woody to listen.

Woody got up and turned around to listen to what they were saying and he was shocked by what he had heard.

"So what do you wanna do now eh?" a man said

"Not sure yet, but last I heard she was being chased by this sheriff guy," another man said with a rough low voice.

"Do you want us to go lookin' for 'er?" the third guy said.

"No, not yet Slick, she will come around. She has too, or we are gonna have ourselves a lil barbeque with all-you-can-eat steak!" The second man said to a tall thin man with a roar.

They all started to laugh at the thought.

"Yeah but didn't ya hear that she was chased by Sheriff Woody. She must be in jail by now."

"HA! I doubt it Porker. I bet you he's either dead or lost. She's not called Sharp Shooter fur nuthin'. Plus she has the fastest horse in town. That's why we threatened her in the first place. Besides…she's done this a million times."

"But M.P., this is Sheriff Woody we're talkin' about. Haven't you heard the stories? He's the baddest Sheriff in town." Slick said

"I've heard em a million times. I don't much care for em either. But all I know is that if Shooter isn't back at the rendezvous spot in two days then the deal's off and we go have ourselves a cook out!" M.P. said with an evil laugh.

All of the men at this point started to pack up and leave the cave. Good thing Woody didn't get up and introduce himself to those guys or he'd be dead meat.

_What did they mean by Sharp Shooter…and me being either dead or lost? Why would I be dead? She has a lot of explaining to do! I guess she was right though for saying that I probably would have believed her, but boy does she have some explaining to do! _Woody thought.

He turned around to demand an explanation, and when he did, all he could see was sheer terror. He knew there was more to this story that he had just overheard and he knew that he was in for more than he bargained for.

**I was inspired to write this story by ChibiSaru70 on Deviantart. The picture that inspired me is called TS Outlaw-Tighten Up**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters except the ones I created...blah blah blah. I only own the story that I wrote for fun.**

**Hey sorry for not updating earlier...but here it is! I hope you guys like it!**

CHAPTER 5

Both of them stood at the mouth of the cave waiting for their horses to arrive. Woody had untied Jessie's hand because he knew she wouldn't give him anymore trouble, it was he who was gonna give her some trouble this time.

"Okay Jessie…now is the part where you explain EVERYTHING! What where they talking about? Shooter? Me dead? Barbeque?" Woody said throwing his arms in the air.

"Yeah…about that…" Jessie said rubbing the back of her neck, "I told you that you wouldn't believe me if I told yah."

"Well I'm listening now!"

"Alright…well it all started a few years ago. I was livin' up North at the time with my Ma an' Pa. We lived on a simple farm in a quiet town. One night my Pa hadn't returned. Me an' ma were gettin' real worried…finally…he returned the next day an' he looked like he had fought in a war or something terrible. Turns out he had gotten himself into a whole lot of trouble…I don't know exactly what happened…Pa was too ashamed to tell me. He told my ma though…but she wouldn't tell me either. A couple months later my pa ran into the house screaming an' yelling for everyone to get out of the house. By then everything was movin' by so fast I didn't know what was happening until it was too late. Me an' ma ran outside to see these men ridin' up our property with guns an' torches. We both ran inside when pa told us to leave out the back. I grabbed ma an' we ran into the barn, strapped up the horses an' took off. When we were a safe distance I turned around to see the house being burned to the ground."

Woody could see her painful expression as she remembered the horror of what she went through. Jessie had put her hair into a single braid that morning and Woody could tell that she was upset because she had started tugging on it.

"I waited an' waited for pa. I was hoping to see him ride up on his horse an' we all leave together…but he never came. My ma had come back for me when she realized I had stopped. She told me that we would have to get far away an' start a new life somewhere safe. I tried to be strong for my ma…but I didn't know how. I didn't even know what was happening…but when I looked back one last time, I saw pa's horse running up the hill. I hoped pa was on it…but he wasn't. Lightning was his horse; he had found her in a ditch when she was a baby. I guess someone didn't want her, but he did. After that, she never left his side. So to see her without my pa was heartbreaking. I knew then something awful had happened. Then I heard the men who had burned down our house yell to each other. I think they were looking for us or something. That's when my ma told me to ride harder than I have ever done in my life. I took my rope from my saddle an' roped Lightning an' took off. Me an' ma rode for days without stopping…"

Jessie took a couple of deep breathes to calm herself down before she continued.

Woody could see that she was having a hard time telling him without crying. He could tell she was holding back very persistent tears. He had gently put his hand on her arm and offered her a seat on a nearby rock. Jessie sat down and tried to recall what happened next. Woody sat a rock across from her and waited patiently.

"…After we got to a safe little town, we found ourselves an inn…an' I don't think I've ever seen my ma so frightened in her entire life. She is the kind of person who can handle any situation…not this time…she was crying all night sometimes. I could understand…we lost our house…Pa…an' everything we had worked for, for so long. I would cry with her sometimes too…of course I tried to be strong. I couldn't let my ma see me crying…but sometimes I couldn't help it. One night I decided to ask her what happened to pa…she had told me that when he was a younger…before my ma an' I, he had done some bad things with bad people. He would get into bar fights, which would end up in some people being dead…by him of course…he would rob banks…an' get into all sorts of trouble. But one day, when he met my mother at a saloon, he promised himself to leave all of his ways behind. When he married my ma, they moved far away to the city. My pa wanted to leave behind everything to start a new life with my ma. I guess his partners in crime didn't like that idea so much…because they had tracked him down to where he was living. My pa told them he didn't want that life anymore, but I guess they kept threatening him. They moved again an' again. My ma said that whenever they showed up my pa would sometimes have to leave for a couple of days. She didn't know what he was doing, but she sure didn't like it…an' when I came along, my pa made sure that nobody would bother us again. My ma an' pa moved a lot when I was young to find a place to settle…but every time they moved, my pa found trouble not too far away. My ma told me that Pa was getting tired of telling them outlaws off, so he decided to take matters into his own hands…an'…well when he did, it didn't turn out too well…that's how we lost the farm…and Pa."

After Jessie had said that, she suddenly turned from being sad, to being very angry. She stood up and clenched her fists tightly.

"And when me an' my ma finally got away an' finally had a good life an' my ma was happy, we found the men who killed my father at the front of our door. They had barged in an' had threatened me an' my ma. They said if I do what they say, then they wouldn't kill us. They said that since my Pa had killed most of their men an' one of the guys' brothers…"

Jessie looked at Woody, "The man who goes by M.P., my Pa killed his brother who led the outlaws he was in when he was younger. When he did that, M.P. made it his soul mission to kill my Pa for the death of his brother. But it didn't stop there…he went after us too. Now I can't do nothing to help my ma…or the farm! I just wish they would just drop down like flies!" Jessie said angrily

"But wait…" Woody said as he stood up, "Who is M.P.? Why haven't I heard about him before?"

"That's only one of his names…He also goes by One-Eyed Bart…But everyone calls him M.P., I guess it's cause he wants to be like his brother or something…cause that's what his brother's name was."

"One-Eyed Bart…" Woody said as he remembered that HE was the reason everyone called him One-Eyed Bart!

_Woody's flashback_

Woody had been hunting down outlaws around Texas one year and had an encounter with Bart. He had been told by one of the sheriffs in the town, while he was there, there had been a farm that had caught on fire and they had found a man who was dead because of several gunshot wounds. Woody headed to the next town and had run into Bart walking out of a saloon. Woody had only glanced at Bart when he noticed a gun aimed right for his head. He had quickly pulled out his gun when Bart pulled the trigger. Woody had barely missed the bullet that had his name written all over it. He quickly aimed and shot Bart right in the eye. Bart had tilted his head before the bullet struck him dead on. The bullet had penetrated the bridge of his nose and went out the side of his eye. After that, he was called One-Eyed Bart. To this day, he is the only person to have survived a shoot-out by Sheriff Woody.

After Woody's flashback, he turned to Jessie, "Okay…but why did they call you Sharp Shooter?"

"Well after we had settled in to our new farm, I was out all day practicin' my shootin' skills. Sometimes my ma had to drag me inside when it was dark…I just didn't want to be one of those girls who couldn't defend herself…or her family. I wasn't gonna let nobody bother me or my ma. It didn't matter what kind of gun I used…If I saw it…well, I could shoot it. I never missed. Sometimes if I got real bored of shooting cans, I would go out an' shoot rabbits. They were fast little critters, an' cute…but they did eat Ma's garden, so I would help her out by saving her garden. It was my ma who really started calling me Sharp Shooter. But she just called me Shooter for short…but it really caught on when those no good outlaws came a knocking at our door. When my ma went to open the door, I ran to get my gun. I knew there was trouble. When they came in an' started threatening my ma, I made sure that I was aiming for Bart. He killed my pa. Unfortunately I missed his big ole head…he looked at me an' laughed! Said I reminded him of a sheriff that did the same thing to him, only he had his eye blown clear out of his head. After he had his laugh, he turned around to see two of his men dead at his feet. I wasn't taking him being there lightly…but that didn't make him turn on his heels an' run…he instead ran towards me. He grabbed me by the throat and threatened that if I ever do that again, then I will end up like my Pa. Shortly after that, I'm robbing banks for him an' his outlaws. You can probably guess the rest after that."

Jessie finally took a deep breath and sat on a rock. She could see the horses running from a distance towards them. She looked up at Woody to see his expression. She chuckled inside, because she saw how he was trying to take everything she had said in.

Jessie interrupted his thoughts and said, "I promised my ma I would save us…but I just don't know how…if I don't meet Bart at the rendezvous spot he will kill ma…"

Woody took a look at the horses walking up to the cave and he decided that he was going to help Jessie, no matter the cost. He would help her save her farm and her ma; and maybe even catch the only outlaw who had ever gotten away from him.

Woody looked at Jessie and put his hands on her shoulders. When she looked up, he noticed the hopelessness in her eyes. Woody couldn't help but feel remorse for her. He couldn't imagine what her life must have been like. Woody was now more determined than ever to give her a life that she deserved. A safe life. A happy life. A life where she and her ma could live in peace.

He gave a small smirk and said, "I'll tell you what we're going to do. We are going to save your ma, and your farm. Don't you worry; I won't let anyone hurt you again."

Jessie's eye brightened up instantly. She smiled from ear to ear.

Woody couldn't help smile back. He liked seeing her happy.

Jessie shocked Woody by suddenly lifting him up into the air in a huge bear hug, "Thank you Woody! You have no idea what this means to me!"

"Whoa! Yeah you're welcome! Now…can you put me down!"

"Oh. Sorry…I get carried away sometimes…" Jessie said putting him down a little embarrassed

"It's fine…I'm just not used to being picked up like that," Woody said smiling, "now, you ready to go catch us some outlaws?"

"Ready."

**I was inspired to write this story by ChibiSaru70 on Deviantart. The picture that inspired me is called TS Outlaw-Tighten Up**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters except the ones I created...blah blah blah. I only own the story that I wrote for fun.**

**Hey guys thanks for all the reviews! I am going to try to update every week. TRY! **

**The story is finally picking up and I have LOTS of ideas for the next few chapters! I just wish i had more time to write...anyways, here you are! Hope you guys like it! Reviews are more than welcome!**

CHAPTER 6

Woody and Jessie were racing through the desert trying to make up for lost time. They had been pushing their horses harder and harder throughout the day. Both of them decided to ride through the night as well. Thankfully it was a full moon, so they had some light to see where they were going. Woody had slowed Thunder down to a snail's pace since he had been running all day. This made it nice for Woody to finally get a chance to talk to Jessie. He still wanted to know why One-Eyed Bart was after her.

"So, Jess…"Woody said turning towards her, "why are these guys after you still…I mean…what do you have that they want?"

"Well…I don't think I really have anything that they want…but they sure do use me to get what they want…I mean because they threaten my ma an' I, there's not much I can do except do whatever they want me to do. That's why I rob banks for them an' do all their dirty work…no one would expect a girl. I guess that's why…but I'm also guessing its cause my pa killed their leader. But to be honest I am surprised that we have survived this long…but I don't think I can do much more before something bad happens to either of us." Jessie looked up at the moon wishing she could be could be free from all of this.

Woody pitied her. No one should be treated like this or treat anyone like this by no means. He couldn't help but wish that he could just take her away from everything and give her a better life with her ma. But Woody knew it wouldn't be that simple.

"Hey…don't mean to slow us down any bit, but would it be okay to rest for a while?" Jessie asked as she took a deep yawn.

Woody hadn't realized how long they had been traveling. They must have been traveling for at least seventeen hours. He looked down at Thunder whose head hung low and it looked like he had fallen asleep while walking because of how tired he was.

"Yeah of course. Let's stop here. We can rest for a few hours, but we should leave once the sun comes up."

"Okay…" Jessie said lazily

They had gone from the blazing heat of the desert to the comfortable air of the forest.

They got off their horses and Woody had unsaddled both of them while Jessie got out a blanket she had packed.

It was a good thing it was a warm night, or else they would be scrambling for wood, but Woody decided that since this was only a very temporary pit stop, a fire wouldn't be necessary. He put the saddles on a tree trunk that had fallen over and had unbridled both horses. Thunder and Lightning had walked off a little ways to graze and Woody was left with Jessie.

He hadn't noticed her lying on the blanket and turned around to trip over her. He went head over heels and his face hit the ground shortly followed by the rest of his body.

"Ahhh! Umph…ouch…why…did this have to…ugh, happen to me…" Woody said as he started to slowly get up not wanting to hurt himself more.

"I'm so sorry Woody! Are you okay?" Jessie said as she was woken up from being startled and realized that Woody had tripped over her.

"Yeah…never better. I'll be fine, it's not like I haven't done that in my life before. Anyways, are you okay?" Woody asked a little worried he had hurt her.

"I'm fine. I'm sorry. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine, it's okay. Jess, it was an accident. Now, just go back to sleep….uhh, but do you mind…now that I'm on the ground," Woody made himself give out an awkward laugh, "if I just sleep on this side of the blanket?"

Woody hadn't realized how tired he was until he tried to get up. Once he was on the ground, he wanted to stay there. At least until he was forced to get up by the sun and by the outlaws who were waiting for them.

"Uh, yeah I guess so. It's not the biggest or comfiest blanket in the world but it will do." Jessie said a little surprised that Woody would ask a question like that. But then again she was too tired to care. She realized that Woody was probably more tired than she was since he had barely gotten any sleep in the past couple of days. Plus that fact that he had tripped over her didn't help.

Jessie rolled over and had put her hat under her head and fell asleep.

Woody turned his back to Jessie and started to drift off to sleep when a thought had occurred to him. He never asked Jessie where they were going…and Woody thought it was silly to help Jessie without even knowing where they were going.

He sat up and asked, "Hey, Jessie where are we –"

Woody looked over to see Jessie fast asleep. He could even hear her lightly snore.

He then just shrugged off his thoughts and went to sleep. Woody would just have to wait until morning.

"Night Jess…" Woody tiredly whispered.

The next morning Woody woke up to the sunlight dancing on his eyelids. He sat up forgetting where he was until he looked over to see Jessie curled up next to him. Woody smiled at the sight of Jessie occasionally twitching. But he quickly stopped looking at Jessie and turned his attention to his right side which felt like someone had punched him really hard. Woody tried to remember what had happened that night. Everything was so fuzzy because he hadn't slept much in the past couple of days. When he put his hand on his side again, he still couldn't recall why he was in pain.

Jessie then rolled over, causing her arm to fumble across Woody's lap.

Woody looked down at Jessie again and remembered why he was in pain, "Oh right, I tripped over Jessie last night 'cause I didn't see her."

Jessie stirred again, but this time she had clung herself to Woody.

Woody had no idea what to do at this point. She had wrapped her arm across his waist and buried her head into the side of his hip. One of her legs had rested on top of Woody's knees so now he couldn't move without waking her.

The last thing he wanted to do was to wake Jessie up because he didn't want to embarrass the both of them, but he also wanted Jessie off. Woody thought that if he could somehow slip out of her grasp he would be free…but how would he do that?

Woody tried to think this through. _Okay, if I take her arm and move it…Ahh! Nope, that just made her strangle my waist even tighter. How is this possible without waking her? C'mon Woody think!...Oh, what if I move my legs out from under her leg, then maybe I could slip out from her grip…Gahh! Nope! That just made things worse! How the heck am I going to get out of this?_

Just then Jessie had thrown her arm that had been across Woody's waist to his shoulders. This completely threw Woody off balance and he was now lying flat on his back.

"This can't be good." Woody whispered to himself.

He looked down and Jessie had settled her head on his chest.

_She must be a real heavy sleeper. _Woody thought to himself.

He then looked around to see if there was anything that could help him get out of this situation before Jessie would wake up. Woody saw Thunder standing a few yards away and he thought that he could at least help him pull Jessie off.

"Psst! Thunder! Over here!" Woody said in a desperate tone.

Thunder looked up and walked over to where Woody was. Lightning was curious as to what the commotion was about and followed Thunder over to Woody.

"Hey Thunder…could you help me out here?" Woody demanded more than actually asking for help.

Thunder saw how uncomfortable Woody was in this situation and looked at Lightning, who, in return, gave him the same look.

"Hello! A little help here please!"

If horses could laugh, Thunder and Lightning were definitely laughing. They had thrown their heads back and gave out several neighs that sounded like laughter to Woody.

"I'm serious! I don't want her to wake up! Now help me!"

Both horses looked at each other again and it looked, to Woody, as though they gave each other evil smirks.

"What are you doing?..." Woody said as though he was doomed to something horrible.

Lightning reached her head down and started nibbling on Jessie's back. This made Jessie giggle and squirm.

That was too much for Woody. He stayed as still as possible, praying that Jessie would not wake up.

"Stop it! You'll wake her! Lightning! No! Bad horse!"

Lightning had stopped and gave Woody a look that told him that she wasn't planning on stopping anytime soon.

Woody was not amused by the fact that the horses loved to torture him for fun.

"Don't you dare!" Woody threatened.

That however did not stop the torment by the horses.

Lightning rubbed Jessie's cheek with her nose and gave out a couple of huffs to make Jessie toss her head on top of Woody's chest.

Every second was torture for Woody. Not only was he unsuccessful in getting Jessie off of him in the first place; the horses were making everything worse.

Thunder then gave a small neigh to Lightning and she backed away from Jessie and Woody.

Woody was relieved that Thunder had made Lightning stop. He soon realized that Thunder called Lightning away only to make room for him to torture Woody.

"Thunder! No! Stop it! Dammit Thunder!"

Thunder had walked over to Woody and was looking directly down on him. Woody looked up at Thunder and gave him the most threatening look he could muster. Of course Thunder didn't care; he was having too much fun watching Woody being tortured.

"Thunder! Don't you dare! Stop it!"

Thunder had started to tease Woody by taking his hat and throwing it up in the air. Woody had gotten one of his arms free and was swatting at Thunder to stop.

Thunder then walked over to the still sleeping Jessie and gently started tugging on her braid. This caused Jessie to become agitated. Jessie started swatting her hand in the air and then used her arm to shield her face from the invisible pest.

Woody knew that anytime she would wake up and have to explain the situation. But he had no idea how to explain it. It's not like he had wanted to sleep next to Jessie that night. But since he fell over Jessie, he didn't want to have to get up again to lie back down.

Woody knew that Jessie was starting to wake up because she had yawned a few times and began to stretch. He knew he had only minutes to do something…but he had no idea what to do!

Thunder again started tugging on Jessie's braid when Lighting made a few whinnies to Thunder to make him stop. He turned to Lightning who was shaking her head. She knew that if Jessie's braid was tugged on, she would not be happy when she woke up. But Thunder didn't know until it was too late.

"Stop that Lighting! Dammit! Why must you bother me when I'm sleeping! Go away!" Jessie looked at Lightning who was standing a few feet away, then looked at Thunder who was standing right next to her. Both of them gave shocked expressions. Jessie was really confused at this point. "What are you guys doing? Where's Wo–", Jessie looked at where she had been sleeping and saw that she was not in the same position she had found herself that night. Her eyes widened when she saw Woody who seemed to be in extreme pain.

"Oh my gosh Woody are you okay?" Jessie said as she got to her knees to help Woody.

Woody let out a yelp, rolled over and tried to get up. He denied help from Jessie and got to his knees where he was clutching a certain area.

Jessie had gotten up and put a hand on his back and asked, "Woody I am SOOO sorry! Are you going to be okay?"

"Yes…I will…be fine…later. Just pain! Lots of pain!" Woody said trying to hold back some much needed yells.

When Thunder had tugged on Jessie's braid, she had used her arm which shielded face and pounded the ground...or what she thought was the ground. She hadn't realized she was sleeping on Woody; when she did, it was too late. She had hit him square on his tender spot.

Jessie felt terrible.

"Woody, is there anything I can do? I'm so sorry!" Jessie pleaded.

"Just, leave me alone. I'll be fine…ouch…hopefully." Woody moaned.

Jessie got up and walked away from Woody and left him in his agonizing state.

Woody was now wishing that he would have had just woken Jessie up. He didn't care if it embarrassed her or not. That would have been better than what had happened to him!

"This is what I get for trying to be a gentleman" Woody said painfully to himself.

As some of the pain ceased, Woody started to get up. Well very slowly. He was still in a lot of pain. Jessie was very strong. Woody didn't know how strong she was until that moment. He told himself he would never underestimate her under any circumstance.

"Hey…ouch…Jessie, do you mind saddling up…ouch…the horses, while I try to recover some feeling back besides pain…man I feel like I might throw up..." Woody said as he clenched his stomach and waddled over to sit on a log.

Woody had put his head in between his legs, closed his eyes and tried not to hurl.

Jessie strapped up the horses and gave them both an angry glance, "You both should know better than that! Now look what you made me do! I don't think I can ever forgive myself now!"

Jessie looked over at Woody who was still resting his head in between his legs. She knew she had to make it up to him. He didn't do anything to deserve that! Jessie kept beating herself up for what she did to Woody.

When it came to people who threatened her, she didn't have a problem shooting a big hole right through their head, but when it came to the people she knew and loved, she couldn't bring herself to even verbally hurt them. But this was an accident, it wasn't even her fault!

Jessie walked over to Woody and sat next to him. She had hesitated to touch him again, but she put her hand in the middle of his shoulder blades and moved her fingers in a side-to-side motion.

"Hey…are you okay Woody?" Jessie said in her most sincere voice.

Woody turned his head still between his knees and glance up at her, "Yeah, I'll be fine. I feel a lot better now, but I'm still in a bit a pain. Sorry for what happened this morning."

"Wait. Why are you sorry? I should be the one to apologize, not you!" Jessie said very surprised at what she just heard.

"Well I should have woken you up, before…you know, what happened to me." Woody said giving out a small painful chuckle.

"Yeah but how were you suppose to know what to do? You don't have anything to apologize for." Jessie said in an arguing tone

Woody was in too much pain to argue, so he just let it go. All he wanted was to be rid of the pain.

"Okay, but I still feel bad for what happened."

"What is wrong with you cowboy? You didn't do anything. It was my fault that you're hurt. Plus last night…I should just stay away from you. I'm too dangerous to be around," Jessie said smiling to herself.

"I have to agree…maybe you should stay away from me," Woody gave a small grin to Jessie.

"Very funny cowboy," Jessie smiled back.

"So I was gonna ask you last night, but you fell asleep. Where are we going exactly?"

"Oh," Jessie had forgotten that she hadn't told Woody where they were going, "We are going to a place that only me an' the outlaws know of. They call it Bandit Cove. It's a huge cave inside a mountain. That's where they keep all their stolen goods, money, gold, you name it. They also have camps around the cave so that other people won't wander into it and take their stuff. I have to meet them there with the bag of money I took from your bank."

Woody had forgotten the bag of money she took. He had put it in his saddle bag for safe keeping after he caught Jessie.

"So, what's gonna happen when you take it to them?" Woody asked worried.

Jessie looked down and picked up a rock and slowly turned it around and around in her fingers.

"Well they might throw a few more threats at me just to make sure I don't try to run away or anything, an' then they will most likely have something else for me to do. They have me do all these things for them because they don't want me to return to my ma. I haven't seen my ma for over a year. I miss her an awful lot. The only way I know she is okay by the letters I get from her. They allow me to write to her, but that's it. Sometimes they will take my letter to her, sometimes, they won't. But at least I know she's okay. I do all of this for her. That's what has kept me going for so long. Every day, I hope that what I'm doing can keep her safe just that much longer. But I can't keep doing this my whole life."

She looked back at Woody and gave a small smile.

"But I sure am glad that I met you. Well…I was kinda forced to meet you since you caught me. But that's not the point," Jessie gave a big smile remembering the first day they met, "The point is, I am so glad that you aren't like any other sheriff's out there. You actually listened to me, an' when Bart came to the cave, you kept me safe an' now we're here an' you actually want to help me. Even though I keep hurtin' you…" Jessie said as she giggled

"Yeah...well I might just change my mind since you brought that up. I've been finding new sores on my body every day," Woody said as he gave her a smile and a wink.

"Well I'm sorry for that…truly I am. But I want you to know that you have brought hope back into my life an' even if I end up not being able to save my ma, I am glad to know you helped me try. I haven't had hope in a long time. I don't remember the last time I had hope for anything. Well, not hope like this."

"Jessie, we will save your ma. I promise. Sheriff's honor," Woody said confidently to reassure Jessie, "But I would appreciate it if you tried to stop hurting me. That might make things work out much more smoothly in the rescuing part, and just for my sake as well," He smiled.

Jessie couldn't help but laugh when he said this.

"Can't guarantee anything cowboy."

"Well then I will have to keep my eye on you all the time. Especially when you decide to hit something. You can bet I will clear the area when that happens."

"Let's hope you are fast enough," Jessie said giggling.

"Are you ready then? We should get a move on." Woody said getting up.

He forgot about the pain when he and Jessie had started talking, and shortly after they started talking the pain went away completely.

"Are you sure? Can you walk?" Jessie said half concerned and half laughing.

"Jessie, I'm not paralyzed…well….not anymore," He grinned.

"Okay then. I'm ready."

Woody grabbed his hat that Thunder threw and started to wrap up the blanket. Jessie grabbed her hat and helped Woody packet everything up. While Woody was bridling both horses, Jessie was braking off some branches from the log they sat on so that they would have enough wood for a fire the next night.

They got on their horses and rode off into the distance.

**I was inspired to write this story by ChibiSaru70 on Deviantart. The picture that inspired me is called TS Outlaw-Tighten Up**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters except the ones I created...blah blah blah. I only own the story that I wrote for fun.**

**HOLY BUTT MONKEYS! This chapter is really long! I couldn't stop writing! It's really getting good now! The next chapter will be more intense and stuff...but every time I sit down to write I am flooded with different ideas! **

**I hope you guys like this one! Towards the end of the chapter, I wrote what Woody was thinking...so it might be random...but isn't that what thoughts kinda are anyways...but i hope it doesn't confuse you tooooo much.**

**Please review! I need to know if this chapter is waaaaay to long and boring for you guys! OR! If you like it then let me know as well...that way I don't feel bad about you guys reading this much. Then again...if you don't like reading then this website isn't for you...sorry...i will stop rambling...again. **

**ENJOY!**

CHAPTER 7

They had only been riding half of the morning when Jessie pointed out to Woody, "Hey you see that hill right in front of us? On the other side of that hill is a cliff where the outlaws are waiting for me. That's where Bandit Cove is."

"Wow, we made excellent timing. We still have one day left before you are supposed to be there," Woody replied.

"I know. We did better than I thought. I guess we also rode faster than I thought. I am supposed to meet them there by midday tomorrow."

"So what do you suppose we do now? If they don't expect you til tomorrow…" Woody asked.

"Well we should stay clear of that area because we don't want them to sneak up on us. That would not end well. So we can camp up over by a lake I know of. It's about an hour's ride, but we would be safe from any outlaws," Jessie replied looking over at Woody.

"Sounds like an excellent plan. Lead the way," Woody said extending his hand out to motion Jessie to lead the way.

They had ridden past a couple of hills and reached a stunningly rugged mountain where they found the lake. The lake was a decent sized lake. It wasn't huge or anything; it was buried right into the base of the mountain which made it hard for Woody to spot until Jessie had pointed it out. One side of the lake was draped with different types of pine trees that gave off a sweet brisk smell. While the other side of the lake was hugging the base of the mountain which was surrounded by jagged rocks and it looked like it carved into the mountain.

Woody took the whole scene in and was in awe. He had never seen such a sight in his whole life.

Jessie had looked at Woody's reaction to what he was seeing and couldn't help but giggle.

He heard her giggle, and turned to her, "Jessie! This is AMAZING! How did you ever find something like this?" Woody said amazed.

"Well, I found it one day when I was coming back from a…uhh…trip, that I went on for Bart an' his bandits."

"Yeah, trip. Uh huh…"

"Okay, fine…it was more like a robbery…an' stuff like that." Jessie said smiling.

Woody looked back to the lake, "Well this sure is a beauty. C'mon race you there!"

Just like that he was gone; heading towards the lake.

"HEY! You cheated!" Jessie said calling after him.

And just like that, she took off, chasing after Woody.

Once Woody arrived, he jumped off Thunder and looked back to see Jessie stop behind him.

"You cheated!" Jessie said sternly, but giving a half smile.

"Who said anything about rules? Besides…you're just a sore loser." Woody said looking up at Jessie still on her horse.

"Am not…I just like to play fair…that's all." Jessie said defending herself.

"C'mon. Just admit it. You're a sore loser."

"I ain't admitting to anything 'cause it ain't true."

"Uh huh…sure it ain't..." Woody said rolling his eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jessie said looking down at Woody with glaring eyes.

"Nothing! I'm not saying anything about you being a sore loser and denying it. I would never say anything of the sort." Woody said raising his hand and exaggerating his voice.

Jessie couldn't help but smile and give out a, "uh huh, sure," to Woody.

"Well should we set up camp then?" Woody asked.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. I'll start unsaddling the horses while you set up a place for the fire an' whatnot. I usually put everything in that cave right there inside the mountain," Jessie said pointing up to the cave carved into the mountain side.

Woody looked up and barely recognized the cave that he saw from the distance when Jessie had shown him the lake.

"Okay sounds like a plan." Woody said

They had gotten situated quickly. It was about midday when Woody and Jessie were done setting things up. Jessie had unsaddled the horses and had put them inside the cave while Woody had set a camp fire just outside from the wood he had collected that morning.

"You hungry?" Jessie asked Woody who was walking up to the cave.

"Very, actually. I could eat a horse!" Woody said loudly so that Thunder heard him.

Thunder turned his head and gave Woody an annoyed glare. Woody just laughed.

"Good, 'cause I got some food that I had packed. Since we didn't eat yesterday, I got a whole bunch of food left." Jessie said looking through her saddle bags.

"Great! What are we having?" Woody said putting his hand on his stomach.

"Uhh...looks like I got two cans of beans, jerky, a couple of apples, an' a jar of peaches. I have a pot to cook the beans in too." Jessie said as her stomach started to growl as she found the food.

"Alright! I will go start the fire then! Woody said racing out of the cave.

He was very excited for the food. Woody had almost forgotten what it was like to have a full belly. He had been so focused the past couple of days, that food was the last thing on his mind. Usually food would be the first thing on his mind, but not this time.

Woody had quickly started the fire and had found branches to hold the pot over the fire. He had also found a couple of rocks big enough for him and Jessie to sit on.

Once the beans were ready, he and Jessie quickly dove in and ate. Jessie had found a couple of small plates and a few utensils to use to cook and eat with. Neither of them talked much because they were focused on the food. They had finished off everything except for the apples that they were going to save for the next morning. Once they had put their dishes away, Jessie went down to the lake to fill her canteen.

Woody followed her and did the same thing as well.

"Wow, this water is warmer than I expected. Usually lake water is freezing." Woody said surprised.

"Yep. This lake is shallow enough to where it heats up nicely, unlike other lakes. But it is also deep enough to where you can swim. That's why I love coming here anytime I get to be alone for a while." Jessie said relaxing on the shore.

"I can see why," Woody said standing up after he had filled his canteen up.

Woody suddenly had a brilliant idea. He sprinted back to the cave.

While Woody did that, Jessie had taken off her hat and boots. She put them on a rock and dipped her feet into the water.

"Hey Jessie!" Woody yelled from the cave.

"What!" Jessie replied

"Do you have any extra clothes?"

"What?" Jessie yelled back confused.

"Do you have any extra clothes?" Woody yelled again.

"Yeah, I got another shirt an' jeans…why?"

Jessie was really confused at this point.

She hadn't heard a reply from Woody after that. Jessie shrugged her shoulders and looked back out onto the water.

Jessie was startled when Woody walked up behind her and said, "Here. I brought you you're shirt and jeans."

"What? I didn't ask for them." Jessie looked back at Woody who was standing behind her.

"Wait…what are you doing?..."Jessie asked cautiously as she scanned her eyes up and down Woody.

He wasn't wearing his hat or his boots. He had taken off his shirt and belt. Jessie looked at him in confusion, but was distracted by the way he stood in front of her.

He was standing a couple of feet away from her and had put her extra clothes on the rock next to her hat. She wasn't sure what was going on, but couldn't help herself by examining Woody.

Without his yellow plaid shirt on, Jessie could see how toned he really was. She hadn't given much thought as to how he looked before, but now that he wasn't wearing a shirt, she could see that he had a really nice figure.

Woody's muscles were toned and solid. Even though he was a tall man, he wasn't lengthy or awkward with his stature. His arms had enough muscle on them to where they didn't look like sticks, but not too much to where they looked like tree trunks. Woody's chest was fit and tight. He had very defined abs that were almost too perfect for his body. Although he had a few chest hairs running down his chest, he barely had any, which made him look very rugged. His hair was brushed forward which made his bangs come down just pasted his eyebrows.

Woody had moved his bangs slightly to the side so that he could see Jessie better.

Jessie had forgotten why he was down there in the first place. She closed her eyes and shook her head to clear her thoughts, and then opened her eyes, "What are you doing…and why did you bring me my other clothes…I didn't ask for them."

"Well, I figured that since it's such a nice day, I'd go for a swim." Woody said

Jessie got up and stood right in front of him, with her back to the lake, "Okay, but why did you bring me my shirt an' jeans? I don't need em."

"Uh…yes you will." Woody replied back with a grin

"Huh? No I won't," Jessie said not sure of what Woody meant.

"What I mean is that you will need them…because of this!"

Just then Woody ran towards Jessie and scooped her up by the waist, so that Jessie was slung over his shoulder. He ran into the water and dunked them both.

Jessie was so surprised by this that she couldn't say anything, but only to give out a shriek.

_SPLASH!_

Jessie didn't know what to do at this point. She got herself free from Woody grip once he dunked them and leaped to the surface of the water. Jessie gasped for air and flung her arms into the sky.

When Woody surfaced, he looked at Jessie who was giving him an "If Looks Could Kill" glare.

"What? Oh, c'mon Jessie, I just wanted to have a bit of fun…" Woody said giving a little pout.

Jessie folded her arms and turned her back on Woody.

"C'mon Jess. I didn't mean to make you mad," Woody said shuffling up to her in waist high water.

What Woody didn't know was that it was part of Jessie's plan to get him back. Once he got close enough to her, she turned around, hooked her arm to Woody's neck and dunked him back into the water.

She waited for Woody to re-surface. When he did, he gave her the same glare she had given him. Only Jessie knew that he didn't really mean it. Just then Woody gave a huge smile to Jessie and laughed.

"I have to admit, that was pretty good. You got me on that one!" Woody said humorously.

"Yeah, now you know how I felt when you grabbed me and dunked me!" Jessie said smiling.

"Yeah, yeah," Woody replied.

"Well it's a good thing you brought my extra clothes down. I see now why you asked for it," Jessie said.

"Yep. I wanted to make sure you had something dry to change into," Woody said.

"Aww, how sweet. Thanks Woody," Jessie said as she thought of how much of a gentleman he was.

"You're welcome. But I would have done it anyways, even if you didn't have extra clothes," Woody said amused.

"Hey!" Jessie yelled at Woody.

She then showered him with a parade of splashes; in return Woody did the same thing.

Both of them were laughing and having a good time.

It had been a while since Jessie had gotten the pleasure to have fun. She had almost forgotten what it was like to have fun and relax. Even if the fun was only short-lived, it felt nice for Jessie to get away from the constant stress in her life.

"Okay okay okay! You win!" Woody called out to Jessie.

Jessie stopped and saw Woody rubbing the water out of his eyes.

When Woody looked back at Jessie, she then splashed him again.

"That's it!" Woody said determined to get back at Jessie.

Jessie had given out a jubilant holler and started swimming away from the pursuing Sheriff.

Even for Woody, he had been too busy for any down time. It felt just as good for him to relax and have some fun to get his mind off all of the stress. Especially since the past couple of days had been really stressful for him. Woody was glad to know that he still remembered how to have fun.

Woody had started swimming after Jessie when she splashed him right back in his face.

Jessie was determined to get away. She glanced back at Woody who was right on her tail.

She then took a deep breath and dove under the water.

Woody had been so focused on his speed to catch up to Jessie that he didn't see her dive under the water. When he looked up to find Jessie, he couldn't see her anywhere.

Just then, Jessie leaped out of the water right behind Woody and dunked him again.

When Woody had re-surfaced for the second time, he gave Jessie a cold look.

"You cheated," he said with his head bobbing in the water.

"Who said anything about rules?" Jessie said amused.

She couldn't help but smirk at Woody. Her eyes were beaming with laughter as she told Woody the same thing he had told her that day. Plus the fact that she was having the time of her life made her eyes dazzle even more in the sunlight.

As the day went on, the two splashed and laughed in the water together until they decided it would be a good time to dry off and get ready for the next day.

"Well that was fun! I don't think I've had that much fun in years!" exclaimed Woody as they got out of the water.

"Same here! I had almost forgotten what it was like to have a good time." Jessie agreed.

Jessie started to wring out her hair that had come undone during the day. She realized that she didn't have her hair tie and started looking around for it.

"What are you looking for?" Woody asked

"I think I lost my hair tie while we were in the water. I can't find it anywhere," Jessie said concerned.

"Oh here is it," Woody said picking it up on the shore where the water had returned it.

"Thanks Woody," Jessie said taking the hair tie and re-braiding her hair.

I'm gonna go start a fire so that we can dry our clothes…and hopefully I'll have some dry clothes for tomorrow." Woody said as he started heading up the shore to the cave.

"Alright, I'll get changed down here. Don't you be sneaking around anywhere until I come up there," Jessie warned

"Don't worry about it. I wouldn't dare do anything like that," Woody said assuring her he would never do that.

He was right too. Woody would never, nor, will ever, do anything to harm a woman. Especially to Jessie because he knows how strong and intimidating she can be and he wasn't willing to put his life on the line.

Once Jessie had gotten change from her wet clothes to her dry clothes, she headed up to the cave where she could see Woody standing next to the fire. He had put his shirt back but hadn't buttoned it all the way. It looked like he was trying to dry his pants off by standing as close as he could to the fire without catching himself on fire.

"You dryin' up there cowboy?" Jessie said giggling as she saw Woody slowly turn his back on the fire to dry off his back side.

"So far…the trick is to not get burned. I learned that not to that too long ago." Woody said half laughing at himself from his ignorance.

Jessie couldn't help but try to keep herself from laughing, but to no avail.

"Yeah, yeah, really funny…" Woody rolled his eyes

"I'm sorry, but that's just too darn funny!" Jessie said slapping her knee.

Woody looked back to make sure he wasn't on fire and then looked back at Jessie.

"Hey, I'm glad we got here a day early. Today was really fun. I'm glad I got to spend time with you like this." He smiled.

This made Jessie blush. She has never had a man be so kind to her in years, let alone have manners. The last time she was ever around a real gentleman was when her father was alive. After her father's death, all she had ever known about men was that they were ruthless, selfish, drunk, and greedy. She hadn't quite known what to do or say around Woody because he had been so sweet to her.

Being around Woody had made her feel safe, which was weird for her because she had never felt safe before. She had always been on her toes around men because of how the outlaws treated her.

"Yeah me too…" Jessie said rubbing her arm and smiling at Woody.

"So, we have a couple more hours until the sun sets…what do you wanna do?" Woody said patting his jeans to see if they were dry.

"Um…I haven't got a clue. But I wouldn't mind just sitting around the fire. It's relaxing." Jessie said as see she watching the flames lick up into the sky.

"Okay, that sounds great actually. I wouldn't mind just hanging out and sitting by the fire." Woody agreed.

Jessie sat on a rock that was opposite of where Woody was standing and set her wet clothes near the fire where they could dry.

Jessie took in a deep breath and looked back to the lake.

Woody turned his head to see Jessie gazing out to the lake. He watched her for a little bit and saw that something was bothering her. He checked his pants again and felt that he was dry enough. He turned around and looked back down at Jessie who was still looking out to the lake.

While buttoning up his shirt, he asked Jessie in a kind tone, "What's on your mind?"

Jessie immediately looked up at Woody, forgetting that he was there.

"Oh uh, sorry, I forgot you were there. Nothing much…just thinking to myself..." Jessie said as her voice faded.

"What are you thinking about?" Woody sweetly asked as he came around the fire and sat next to her.

"Oh it's nothing…really…" Jessie said looking back to the lake.

"C'mon Jess, I know something is bothering you. You can tell me anything…or anything else that you haven't already told me." Woody said to lighten up the mood.

Jessie smiled at what Woody said because she thought about how much she had already told Woody.

"Well," Jessie said taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, "I just wish that this day wouldn't end…you have no idea what this day has meant to me Woody. I have never had a day to relax an' have fun. Not since my father was alive, and that was so long ago…I just wish that I could be free from all of this, an' I wish I had never dragged you into this. It's my problem, an' I should not have you try to solve it." Jessie said looking at Woody with a desperate longing to be rid of everything that has happened.

"Jessie. You know it's not your fault and you shouldn't blame it on yourself. You didn't even ask for this life…it was forced into your life…plus, you and I both know that if I hadn't shown up, you wouldn't be where you are today. I'm here to help you…I want to help you…no matter what happens," Woody said warmly and meeting her gaze, "and, when this is all over, you WILL be free from everything. You won't ever have to worry about Bart, or any other outlaw bothering you again. I will make sure of it."

It took Jessie a minute, or so to respond, but she then broke away her eye contact with Woody and looked down at the fire, "I wish I could believe you Woody…but you have no idea what you're getting yourself into. You have no idea what it's like…you have no idea what I've been through. How can you be so confident that you can help me get away from this? I've tried, believe me…an' every time it has failed…I just don't see how we can do this," Jessie finished and brought her knees up to her chest and buried her face.

Woody put his hand on Jessie's shoulder and she again, met his gaze.

"I'm not saying it will be easy, but I do know that whatever comes our way, we will be able to deal with it…and the only reason I'm confident, is because I know that with the both of us, we can do it."

"I don't know…but I guess I will believe you. I mean you do have a point about havin' the both of us. Thanks again Woody. You have no idea what this time has meant to me." Jessie said giving Woody a smile.

"You're very welcome Jessie," Woody said softly.

Both of them sat together for some time. When they looked back at the lake, they watched to see the sun descend behind it.

"Looks like we should get some rest," Woody said watching the sun set.

"Looks like it…" Jessie agreed.

Jessie got up and went to get her blanket from her saddle and brought it back out to where Woody was. She laid it down by the fire, took off her boots, her hat, and sat down.

"Don't suppose you wanna sleep next to me again," Jessie said looking up at Woody who was adding more wood to the fire.

"After what happened to me, I will never sleep next to you…even if my life depended on it." Woody said remembering the pain of it all.

"Oh c'mon! It wasn't that bad!" Jessie said waving her hand in the air at Woody.

"You're right…it wasn't bad…it was horrible!" Woody stated.

"Pshh…whatever you say," Jessie teased.

She then lied on the blanket, closed her eyes, and fell asleep to the crackling sounds of the flames.

Woody turned over a few pieces of wood and then sat on a rock and looked up at the stars. With the nighttime sounds surrounding him, he was able to think of what was to come the next day.

_Boy, I do hope that tomorrow goes well…I don't even know how I am going to help Jessie. I promised her I would…but how do I do that? I remember Jess saying that there are camps surrounding the cave that she is going to…maybe I can take out a couple of those without One-Eyed Bart knowing…that way we would have a better chance at escaping, and taking out Bart and saving Jessie. Oh, wait…what if Bart checks on one of the camps while we sneak to another one…then he would know something is wrong and Jessie might be blamed…MAN THIS IS HARD!...I wonder if there is a way to sneak around the camps and into the cave…but then we could really escape...hmmm…_

Woody pondered his thoughts for a while when he had to stir the fire again. When he did that he caught a glimpse of Jessie sleeping.

He then sat back and observed her while she slept.

_She has been through so much…I can't imagine how hard tomorrow will be for her. Why did this have to happen to her? Why couldn't I have been there for her years ago…but I have to hand it to her…she is a very tough and spirited woman. She sure does look peaceful and harmless when she sleeps…yeah only when she sleeps. I wonder what she is dreaming about. Probably about being with her ma again on the farm. Jessie looks pretty good for someone who has had a hard life…I mean; she doesn't have those rough features that most outlaws have…huh. She looks like a normal cowgirl; nevertheless she is anything but normal. She is very tough and independent for a woman her age…I respect that in her. Not most women can do that…I could never see Bo doing that…Bo…I completely forgot about her! I wonder if she is okay…I do miss her a lot. I never even got the chance to tell her how I feel…I guess that will have to wait…for who knows how long. _

Woody stopped his daydreaming about Bo when Jessie rolled over on her blanket, catching the Sheriff's attention.

_But Jessie isn't bad looking herself. Plus I get along with her really well…actually, she is very pretty. I love how she laughs...especially today. I had a lot of fun with her today…more fun than I have hanging out with Bo. Maybe because Bo wouldn't ever think it was fun to play in a lake, or race on horseback…or shoot things…or…do anything that I like to do…but Jessie like to do everything I love to do…WAIT! WHY AM I THINKING ABOUT THIS! ABOUT JESSIE! I'VE ONLY KNOWN HER THREE DAYS!...this is wrong! I shouldn't even be thinking about Jessie like that! I barely know her!...well…I mean, I feel like I've known her, her whole life…because she has told me her whole life's story…but that doesn't mean anything! But I do get along with her well…and I do like being around her…NO STOP IT! WHY AM I THINKING ABOUT THIS AGAIN! UGH! STOP IT WOODY! _

Woody closed his eyes to take his focus off of the sleeping Jessie.

_You love Bo, you love Bo, you love Bo. You've known her longer and you love her. But then again I don't know her like Jessie…UGH! You love Bo, you love Bo, you LOVE Bo!_

Woody continued to argue with himself for a while. He was confused why he suddenly had so many emotions for Jessie. But he blamed it on her life's story. He declared that because of her life's story, he had emotionally attached himself to Jessie because he pitied her…but deep inside he couldn't shake the feeling that he was in denial. Woody tried to think of reasons why he loved Bo more, but he found it almost impossible because he admitted to himself that he somehow connects better with Jessie over Bo. He did like the fact that Jessie was tough and could handle more physically demanding activities than Bo. He also liked how Jessie was able to handle just about any problem…well almost any problem. But he was trying to come up with reasons why he loved Bo more.

Eventually he was tired of arguing and decided to get a good night's rest before tomorrow. He put some more wood in the fire to last it the rest of the night and fell asleep beside the rock and the fire.

**I was inspired to write this story by ChibiSaru70 on Deviantart. The picture that inspired me is called TS Outlaw-Tighten Up**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters except the ones I created...blah blah blah. I only own the story that I wrote for fun.**

**Okay, this one is shorter than the last few chapters because i actually had a hard time writing this one...I couldn't decide how I should write it...so I went with this. I know the next chapter will be easier because I know how it's going to go, it's just GETTING there that's frustrating. **

**Anyways. I hope this doesn't seemed rushed...because I didn't try to rush it...I spent a lot of time trying to figure this chapter out. **

**Oh and thanks to everyone who has reviewed my story! I love hearing from you guys! and to all my silent readers as well! thanks for taking your time to read my lil ole story ^^**

**Enjoy!**

CHAPTER 8

It was a brisk morning in the mountains and the sun was peaking over with its rays to awaken the sleeping sheriff and outlaw. The fire had burned itself out and all was left was ash and smoke.

"Woody wake up," Jessie said as she gently shook the sleeping sheriff.

Woody rolled over and mumbled a couple of words to Jessie.

"C'mon Woody, get up," Jessie said again, but with more sternness.

"Uhhhhh," was all that came out of Woody's mouth.

Jessie then walked over to Woody's feet, grabbed him by the ankles and started to drag him.

This woke Woody up really fast.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Woody asked looking wide eyed at Jessie who had him by the ankles.

Jessie dropped his legs, "Rise and shine cowboy." She then gave him a quick smile before she turned and headed to the lake where she had gotten the horses ready.

Woody got up, found his hat and rubbed the side of his face to wake himself up a bit more. After blinking a few times to get himself adjusted to the sunlight, he headed to where Jessie was waiting for him on Lightning.

He looked up at Jessie and saw that she was nervous for what was to come.

"Hey you okay?" He asked

"I guess so…I've got a bad feeling about bringing you with me though. Maybe I should go at it alone; I don't want you to get hurt 'cause of me."

"Don't' worry about me, I'll be fine." Woody said to reassure her.

After that, Woody got onto Thunder and they both rode towards Bandit Cove.

Once they got close to Bandit Cove Woody slowed down and made sure he was out of site so that he and Jessie wouldn't be caught. Jessie was alone after that.

Woody's POV

When Woody broke away from Jessie, it was agreed that he would remain hidden until Jessie came back and then they would create a plan to get rid of Bart. But once Woody was alone, he decided that he couldn't just wait and do nothing while Jessie was putting herself at risk. He and Thunder walked silently through the forest to search out the campsites that surrounded Bandit Cove. (even though in reality it's a cave, not a cove, the bandits aren't very smart…yes there is a difference)

Woody's plan was to take out as many men in the camps as he could. He remembered Jessie saying that there were three camps surrounding the cove. Woody estimated that there had to be at least three or four men at each camp.

He snuck around to see where he could find the nearest camp and when he spotted one of them, he got off Thunder and snuck around the camp to find a place where he could hide. Woody was thinking of ways he could take each outlaw out without arousing suspicion or alerting the other outlaws and potentially making it a life threatening situation for him and Jessie.

He got around to one of the tents and could see that there were three men who had fallen asleep while sitting around their small camp fire. Woody figured they had drunk themselves to sleep because he could smell the liquor that the outlaws were drinking from where he was crouching. Woody was scanning for anything that could help him take the sleeping bandits out. He then spotted a whittling knife that was sticking out of one the bandit's breast pocket. Tiptoeing around the camp, Woody made sure that these men were the only ones around the camp. When he had covered the premises of the camp, he snuck up to the sleeping bandits. Careful not to wake them, or gag because of the stench, he quietly stole the knife out of the outlaw's pocket. A few times the bandits let out a loud snore and readjusted themselves. Woody took the knife and knew what he had to do in order to help Jessie. He had to work quickly and quietly and move onto the next camp.

He stood behind the first outlaw and with one hand he quickly covered he mouth, while with the other he slit his throat.

Blood squirted everywhere. Woody hoped that he hadn't waked the rest of the bandits. He glanced up to see the other two still sound asleep.

Seeing that one of them was dead, he moved onto the next bandit. Woody was surprised that neither of them struggled so much. He had expected more of a resistance between the two bandits. But then again he was killing them in their sleep.

Finally Woody had successfully silenced three outlaws. He looked around and saw a few blankets lying on the ground. Woody grabbed them and put them over the bandits neck and body hoping that they looked like they were still sleeping just in case someone came down to check. It would at least buy Woody some extra time.

After cleaning himself off from some of the blood that had spilled onto his sleeve he hastily moved onto the next camp.

The second camp that he came across was about the same as the first one. He easily took out the bandits and moved on to the last campsite.

Woody had hid behind a tree and saw that there were four men moving about. He had kept the knife that he took from the outlaw he killed and held it tightly in his hand.

Since all of the men at the camp were wake, he would have to lure each of them one by one in order to keep himself concealed from One-Eyed Bart and the rest of his outlaws.

With one hand on the knife, Woody found a small rock and threw it at the nearest outlaw's head.

"Ow! Hey! Who the hell threw that!" the outlaw said angrily.

He searched where he was standing and went behind a tent where Woody had repositioned himself.

_SLICE_

After Woody had silenced yet another outlaw, he quickly set the outlaw to the side to get ready for his next victim.

When Woody stood up to peak back at the other outlaws, he was surprised from behind by a hand, grabbing his shoulder, and yanking him around.

Jessie's POV

When Jessie and Woody separated, all she could think about was turning around and escaping from the place where she was heading. She didn't want to face Bart again because she was terrified of him. Even though she sometimes acted tough around him, she was terrified for her life, and her mother's.

Turning around to see Woody again, her eyes pleaded for rescuing. But she knew that he couldn't' do anything to help her yet. As she looked at Woody from a distance, she saw him give a nod with his head. She knew that he wanted her to be strong, and she wished she could be stronger. Every time she had to face Bart, she would shrink inside and wish that she could just be rid of everything. But she was glad to have someone with her, to help her deal with her problems and to have someone who wanted to protect her.

Turning back around again, Jessie headed towards Bandit Cove.

Arriving at the mouth of the cave, she hopped off Lightning and started to enter the cave.

"Well well well…look who's back Slick!" Porker said in an amused raspy voice.

Unlike the other bandits, Porker was the filthiest of them all. Not to mention that he looked like he was about to explode by how fat he was. He was wearing his old grey cowboy hat that had been so worn that it had to be held together by patches of cloth. His clothes weren't much on an improvement either. He wore a red buttoned shirt that had a few buttons missing because his belly didn't have enough room to fit inside his shirt. The pants he wore were a bit short for him, so he had to tuck them into his old black boots that looked like they had been trampled by a herd of cattle. Not only were his clothes bad, but he didn't believe in brushing his teeth, so that left a few gaps in his mouth whenever he spoke. Crazy eyebrows and a beard that grew to his chest only added to his disgusting attire. Also the fact that every time Jessie saw him, he was smoking on a cigar. Jessie couldn't recall a time when she saw him without one. She thought that he probably even slept with a cigar in his mouth.

"Well if it ain't Miss Shooter. 'Bout time you showed up, M.P. was gettin' restless waiting here all day." Slick said trying to intimidate Jessie.

Unlike Porker, Slick was tall and lean. He didn't have much meat on him; he was mostly skin and bones. Jessie guessed because Porker ate everything before anyone had a chance to take a bite of their own food. He was very loyal to M.P. and he was always sticking his nose into everybody's business. While Porker was an older outlaw, Slick was middle-aged and he liked to keep himself relatively clean compared to Porker. He wore a brown and white buttoned shirt that was dusty, but not filthy like Porker's. His jeans had rips on his knees; his boots were brown and worn. Slick never wore a hat, but he kept his yellow bandana around his neck at all times.

Jessie shook the bag of money at Porker and Slick, "Well I got what you guys wanted. Where is M.P. so I can get out of here again?"

"Ohhh he will be back I'm sure, just went site-seeing, that's all," Slick said in his whistled voice.

Whenever the outlaws said the term 'sight-seeing' they mean to check on the camps. Jessie just hoped that Woody was out of sight so that Bart wouldn't catch him.

"Do you know when he'll be back?" Jessie said immediately.

"What's the hurry? You ain't got nothing to do anyways," Porker said annoyed.

"I just want to know what M.P. wants me to do…" Jessie said to save herself from arguing.

"I'm sure he'll have plenty of things for you to do missy," Slick said jerking the bag of money out of Jessie's hand.

He started to count the money when he looked up and hollered, "Hey lookie here! M.P. caught himself a spy!"

Jessie whirled around and was in shock by what she saw.

_Oh my God! Woody! _Jessie thought as her mind started to race.

"Looks like I caught myself a really big fish eh fellas?" M.P. bellowed holding up the limp sheriff in his hands.

Jessie's eyes went wide and were filling up with tears. She tried to hold them back as much as she could. Jessie couldn't let the other bandits see her this way because they would most definitely kill Woody in front of her if they caught her crying over him. Seeing Woody's limp and bruised body was almost too much for Jessie to handle, she was frozen in place and couldn't think of anything to say or do to help him.

**I was inspired to write this story by ChibiSaru70 on Deviantart. The picture that inspired me is called TS Outlaw-Tighten Up**

**I promise the next chapter will be longer! AND better! But i hope you liked it. PLEASE REVIEW! :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: of course i don't own Toy Story! If i did it would have had a different ending... :P **

**A/N Hey Guys! Okay so here is another chapter! I was gonna add a bit more to this, but I think I will save it for the next chapter. I will update very soon for the next chapter. Happy New Year! A/N**

CHAPTER 9

Woody's POV

"Wha…what happened?...w-where am I?"

Woody groggily said as he rubbed the back of his head that revealed a huge, throbbing bump. He noticed that his hands were stained with blood, but he couldn't figure out why.

Woody was very confused about where he was. He couldn't tell if it was still day time or night.

Looking up at the sky told Woody that it was dark out.

He looked around and saw a man sitting across from him, stirring flaming wood coals.

"W-who are you…?" Was all that he could say before resting his head back down, and closing his eyes.

Jessie's POV

Jessie couldn't believe what had happened. Woody was supposed to remain hidden until she came back. She couldn't understand why he would do something so dangerous in order to try and save her. Now she didn't know what was going to happen to her.

The only thing on her mind was if Woody was still alive or not.

_Flashback_

_ After Bart brought Woody's limp body to the cove, they tied his hand behind his back and then tied him tightly to a chair that was inside the cave. _

_Once Woody began to gain consciousness, he was greeted by One-Eyed Bart's ugly mug in his face._

_ "Miss me sheriff?" Bart said with an evil grin. _

_Woody glared at Bart with vengeance. _

_"Now now sheriff! That's no way to greet anyone. Where's your manners?...Of course I don't expect you have much in the way of manners, 'cause last time we crossed paths, you done nearly killed me. Now look what I got to show for it!" Bart said pointing at his eye patch covering his left eye._

_ "Nearly blew my head off ya did. Well it's a good thing you didn't kill me sheriff…I would hate to miss this." He said evilly._

_ Once Bart moved slightly to the side, Woody noticed Jessie, who was being held by two other bandits. Both of them had tightly gripped either arm. Jessie could only watch as Bart started thrashing Woody with his fists and feet. _

_She turned her head and tried to keep herself from crying because she didn't want the bandits, especially Bart to notice her. It might cost Woody his life, or hers. But she didn't even know if Woody would live by the way Bart was beating him. All she could do was stand there and hope that he'd be strong enough to survive. _

_Jessie closed her eyes and dared not to open them. She couldn't bear hearing Woody cry out in pain from Bart beating him; let alone watch helplessly._

_ After Bart was exhausted from shredding Woody up, he gave a vicious victory laugh._

_ "Is that all you got sheriff? C'mon now! I am just getting warmed up!"_

_ Woody had been hit so hard by Bart that he was laying on his side, curled up in a heap. He had been thrown off of the chair and was lying mere feet away from Jessie. _

_Blood was running down his head, nose, mouth and he had a gash on the right side of his cheek. _

_Jessie looked down at Woody when she heard him fall in front of her. She was frozen with fear as she saw him lying in front of her barely conscious._

_ With the last bit of strength that he had, he looked up at Jessie and mouthed the words "I'm sorry". _

_Seeing Woody apologize for something that she dragged him into was unbearable for Jessie. She couldn't look at Woody any longer without tearing up._

_ She felt like she was being torn up worse inside that Woody was on the outside. Looking away from Woody, Jessie let one teardrop fall from her eye. She couldn't find the strength to hold it back. That single tear drop had escaped from her. _

_"Well now…what do we have here?" Bart said walking up to Jessie. _

_He placed his hand under her chin and lifted her head so that she faced him. Jessie tried to hide her tears by looking down at the ground. _

_"So…what are we gonna do about this fellas? Looks like our little Shooter cares about her sheriff. What's the matter Shooter? Can't handle a little fun?" Bart said with an evil grin._

_ "You're gonna pay for this Bart!" Jessie said as her voice cracked._

_ Her eyes were filled with hatred as she scowled into Bart's eye._

_ "And what are you gonna do about lil missy?" Bart said taunting her._

_ Woody gave a few whimpers as he rolled over on his back. "Jessie," Woody said weakly._

_ Hearing this made Jessie's eyes overflow with tears. She couldn't help herself this time and she didn't care who was looking. It tore her apart that she couldn't do anything about what was happening. Struggling was impossible for her. She was bound to the will of the bandits who held her firmly in their grasp. _

_She looked into Woody's eyes and could see that he wanted to fight back, to save her from this horrible fate that was forced into her life. But he was beaten and broken. Bart really did a number on Woody. _

_Jessie locked gazes with Woody, and said with a feeble voice, said, "I'm so sorry Woody."_

_ "Ahhh! Ain't this sweet! I'm getting' all choked up just watching you two!" Bart said mockingly._

_ "Let him go! Your fight is with me! Not him!" Jessie yelled desperately so that he would stop hurting Woody. _

_"Oh I'll let him go alright…go straight to HELL!" Bart said harshly._

_ Bart then stomped on Woody's chest, making a couple of cracking noises in Woody's rib cage._

_ Woody let out a gasp as he felt his ribs break._

_ "NO! WOODY! STOP IT!" Jessie yelled and started kicking wildly trying to free herself from the bandits' grip._

_ "Okay Shooter…you're really startin' to annoy me with this "Woody" shit," Bart said angrily._

_ "We got work to do boys! Get her out of here! Get the horses ready!" Bart yelled loudly._

_ Jessie continued to scream and kick violently to get to Woody._

_ Woody, however just laid on his back, unable to move._

_ "Eh…what do you wanna do with the sheriff boss?" Slick said looking down at Woody who was still gasping for air from his broken ribs. _

_"Just leave him. He's as good as dead anyways…I want him to suffer a slow and painful death." Bart said jumping onto his horse._

_ "Okay, well what are we gonna do with Shooter?" Porker asked clumsily getting on his horse._

_ "We have some unfinished business with this here traitor." The other bandits started tying her hand together and throwing her on top of Lightning who they strapped to Bart's horse. _

_Woody was left all alone._

_ The only thing he could do was watch Jessie being dragged away from him. He watched her struggle with all her might to get away, but she was unable. Everything seemed to slow down for Woody. He wasn't able to comprehend what she was saying or see everything that was going on, but he could see her._

_ Woody saw Jessie yell words, but he couldn't quite make out what they were. He saw that she was scared and crying, but he couldn't understand why. All he understood was that he was in tremendous pain. Everything hurt. From his face to his ribs._

_ Blood was draining from Woody's face and he could taste the blood coming from his mouth. He slipped in and out of consciousness as Jessie was being taken away from him. The last thing he did before she was gone from his sight was mumble the word "Jessie" from his lips._

_ End of Flashback_

Now Jessie was tied up and unable to do anything. All she could think about was Woody. Tears ran down her cheeks as thoughts raced through her mind about if she was ever going to see Woody again.

**A/N Hope you liked it. I will make the next chapter longer, so don't worry. This is kinda of a short chapter for me...and like most people, I like to read long chapters...it makes everything seem to last. So I will make the next chapter longer. :) A/N**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: of course i don't own Toy Story! If i did it would have had a different ending... :P **

**A/N Alright! Well here you are! I had a lot of fun writing this and I hope you have just as much fun reading it. School is getting crazy, but I will try and save the weekends for writing. I'm pretty sure I can do it, but just in case I can't, I just want to let you guys know ahead of time. ANYWAYS! please review! I love hearing from you guys and what you think about it. A/N**

Chapter 10

Woody's POV

Woody suddenly woke up and jolted forward. He grabbed his chest as immense pain shocked his body from his rapid movement.

Groaning from the pain, he remembered that Jessie was in danger and that she had been taken away from Bart. But he was still too weak to stand up, and he still had a hard time catching his breath.

"Well it's about time your awake, partner; you've been sleeping like a log these past couple days," A rough, gentle voice said.

Woody turned his attention to a man sitting across from him cooking what looked like to be beans over the fire.

The stranger looked to be a good head shorter than Woody but he definitely had more muscle. He was wearing a light green shirt with purple cuffs and embroidery across the chest part of his shirt. His jeans were worn, but they didn't have any holes, he wore black dusty boots and a black hat.

His skin was pale, he had short blonde hair and his eyes were as blue as the sky.

The stranger seemed to be around the same age as Woody.

"Who…who are you?...Where am I?...What, happened to me?...Where's Jessie?" was all that Woody could say until he ran out of breath.

When he asked about Jessie, he didn't even care what kind of condition he was in; all he wanted to do was to go look for her. As he was thinking about where Bart may have taken her, his attention was drawn away when the stranger began to speak.

"Well first off, the name's Buzz," Buzz said, and then looked up to see Woody giving him a strange look.

Buzz chuckled and continued, "It's a name that everyone in the academy gave me, so I've stuck with it ever since...but anyways, that's not what's important now. What is important is that you need to get some rest. You're pretty badly injured," Buzz said motioning to Woody's wounds.

"I know, but I can't stay, I have to get going, thanks for…everything…now I have to go."

Woody began to get up, but he was struggling to even sit up properly.

"Hold on there cowboy," Buzz said as he went over and put his hands on Woody's shoulders to keep him from standing up.

"You don't understand, Buzz, I need to go. I have to find Jessie before something bad happens to her."

"Well you're too badly hurt to go anywhere…uhh…"

"Woody," Woody stated and tried to get up.

"Woody. You can't go anywhere. You have broken ribs, you most likely had a concussion, and your cuts are just barely healing," Buzz said flatly before lightly pushing on his shoulders.

"Does this Jessie have red hair?" Buzz asked remembering that Woody was trying to look for her.

"Yes! You know her?" Woody said hopeful.

"No, but I was in the woods when I saw a bunch of bandits carry a woman away…I was on a scouting routine for the academy, cause I'm the ranger in these here parts. Anyway, I was on my way, minding my own business when I saw a fleet of bandits racing out of the woods. I figured something had happened, so I followed them for a while. I heard them saying something about Sunnyside, burning and a few other stuff, but I'm not quite sure. Then I heard them talk about how they left someone nearly dead at a cave. Once I heard that, I immediately retraced their steps back here where I found you. If I had come any later, I'm afraid you wouldn't have made it. I had to bind your chest and fix up your wounds. But as for the concussion you suffered, I just had to hope your body would heal itself. Looks like it has…well, enough to where you're awake…but you still have a long way to go before you can be fully functional again." Buzz said as he handed Woody a bowl of beans.

Woody had almost devoured the whole bowl in a few bites before he spoke again.

"How come you did save Jessie? Didn't you know she was in danger when you followed them?" Woody said upset by the fact that that might have been the only chance at saving Jessie.

"If I did, I'm afraid it only would have made it worse. I couldn't take all those bandits at once and expect it to not be risky…and by the looks of what I saw, she didn't seemed to be physically hurt, but by the looks of it, she was pretty upset," Buzz explained.

"Okay, well thanks for saving me, I guess, but now we need to find Jessie. I can't go another day knowing that those bastards have her!" Woody spoke with hatred in his voice.

"We will, don't worry cowboy I know where they're heading, but you need to get some rest before we leave," Buzz said finishing up the food.

"Wait? You're going to help me?" Woody said confused.

He didn't even ask for his help.

But Woody didn't argue because he knew that he could use all the help he could get, especially since he had no idea where he would be going and because he was still in a lot of pain and could barely sit up.

"Of course I am. It's my duty, and I can see that there is something not right about all this. Plus those bandits need to be put to justice." Buzz stated.

"Thanks Buzz," Woody said humbly.

"But wait, why are they going to Sunnyside?" Woody asked, remembering Buzz mentioning that that was the town Bart was headed, "that town is over a week's ride! Why there?"

"Good question?...is there something important there that the bandits want?" Buzz asked.

"Not that I know of…Jessie never mentioned any specific town" Woody thought.

Just then, it dawned on him.

"Wait! Jessie did say that if she had ever betrayed them, that they were going to "have a barbeque." That must mean that her mother lives in Sunnyside!"

Woody realized what he just said and he was now more determined than ever to find Jessie and save her and her mother.

"What? I'm not following you," Buzz said confused.

Woody then explained what had happened in the past few days and what Jessie had told him in the time that they were together. He told Buzz about Bart and how he and Jessie tied into everything and how Jessie's father had been killed by Bart because her father killed his brother, M.P.

After telling Buzz every detail he could possibly recall, Buzz stood up and began to pack his saddle.

"Where's Thunder?" Woody said realizing that he hadn't seen his horse since he invaded the camps at the bandits' hideout.

"I'm assuming you mean your horse? I found a black mustang wandering the woods before I found you…I didn't know who it belonged too, so I tied him to my horse and brought him with me. Then I found you, I assumed he was yours…good thing I grabbed him while I had the chance. He is over there by Buster, my horse." Buzz said pointing over to where the horses were grazing next to each other.

Woody gave out a sigh of relief to see Thunder unharmed.

Woody then looked over at Buzz who was packing his saddle, "Thanks, really…you don't have to help me, but I sure do appreciate it."

"It's my pleasure Woody. I couldn't live with myself if I just let those bandits get away. Plus I feel like it's now my duty to help you and Jessie," Buzz said honestly.

"I felt the same way when I found out what Jessie had, and still is going through," Woody agreed.

Buzz then started to pack up Woody's saddle to get ready for the next morning.

"Well you better get back to sleep and rest up for tomorrow. I can imagine it will be difficult for you to travel since you're still pretty beat up," Buzz said concerned.

Woody then rubbed his ribcage remembering that he had broken ribs.

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me…"

He then slowly lied back down and fell asleep to the sound of the fire crackling.

Woody's mind raced around as he thought of Jessie and what kind of terrible situation she is in. He hated that he had a safe place to sleep when her life was at stake. As much as he wanted to rush to her side, he knew that if he left now, it would only make it worse for him and then he couldn't save her.

He felt like he was letting her down, but Woody knew he was doing all he could at the moment.

Eventually he drifted off to sleep.

Jessie's POV

_THE PREVIOUS DAY_

Jessie's mind raced as she remembered the last time she saw Woody. She couldn't just let him die! But what was she supposed to do?

She swore to herself that she would kill Bart as soon as she got the chance. Jessie didn't care if it would cost her, her own life. She wouldn't let Woody die in vain.

Jessie knew that she only had so much time left before Bart decided to kill her and her ma. She had to think of something quick before something really bad happened.

As the day wore on, Jessie could only think of ways to escape.

Eventually she got tired of making up "sure to fail" plans. She would just have to wait until they stopped to think of more ways to escape.

After Jessie decided to give up on the escape plans, her mind drifted back to Woody. Just the thought of Woody getting beaten up and left for dead made her sick.

Tears began to roll down her cheeks again.

Lightning heard her weeping and turned her head and gave out a concerned neigh.

"Oh Lightning, I can't believe this…it's all my fault. If I had done something, Woody would still be here," Jessie said weakly.

Lighting looked at her with compassion and gave a few neighs and grunts to tell Jessie she sympathized with her.

"An' with Woody gone, I-I don't know what to do anymore…I don't know if I will be able to save Ma…or even if I can save us. I wish Woody was here…he'd know what to do."

After that, Jessie couldn't talk more about Woody. It was too painfully for her.

_The only person in the world to help me, and he's gone…all because of me. _Jessie thought.

As darkness fell the bandits set up camp and tied up the horses.

"You'll be sleepin' here Shooter," Bart said as he grabbed Jessie off of Lightning and threw her to the ground.

"Now don't you be thinkin' of escapin' 'cause you won't get very far. I've got men everywhere lookin' after you like a hawk lookin' at a mouse," Bart continued sternly.

Jessie glared at him with all the hatred she could possibly muster.

"Ah now that's not the way to treat my hospitality. You're lucky I didn't kill you like your sheriff friend!" Bart said mockingly.

When he brought up Woody, Jessie felt like her heart had been ripped out of her chest, stomped on by a herd of cattle and then shot several times. She felt like the world had stopped. Nothing was worth living for anymore.

Jessie tried pushing those thoughts out of her mind but was fighting a losing battle. All she could think about was Woody and that she will never see him again.

Seeing that Jessie's spirit had died, Bart spat on the ground in front of her and walked away to join the rest of the bandits for a night of victorious drinking.

Lightning was by her side the whole time and seeing Jessie like this made it hard for her to watch.

Nudging lightly, Lightning made an attempt to cheer Jessie up.

"Thanks girl…I know what you're tryin' to do. But I don't know if anything will help at this point," Jessie sighed.

"I just don't see what I could do to save us or even Ma…I couldn't even save–"Jessie couldn't even say his name because it brought back too many horrible memorize.

A couple hours later, all the bandits had fallen asleep drunk. No one was watching Jessie.

Looking around the campsite, Jessie struggled to her feet and tried to undo the knot behind her back that was holding her hands together.

As she gave up trying to untie the knot, Jessie crept around the camp to see if she could find something sharp to cut the bindings.

Fortunately, she found a knife that one of the bandits threw and it was stuck in the trunk of a tree.

Jessie brought her hands down backwards and used her feet to step over her bound hands. She brought them back up and cut her bindings on the knife.

After that, she grabbed the knife and yanked it out of the tree. Her whole being was filled with revenge and she looked at Bart with blood in her eyes.

As she got closer to Bart she raised the knife. When she was at the high point of her arch, Lightning came up behind her and nudged her back.

Jessie quickly turned around and saw that Lightning was trying to stop her.

"What are you doing? Don't you realize that our problems will be over as soon as he's dead?" Jessie whispered angrily.

Lightning jerked her head in the direction that they had come from earlier that day. Then Jessie knew what she was trying to say.

"You're right...I need to find Woody. He may still be alive…" Jessie said quietly.

The thought of Woody still being alive made Jessie more determined than ever to find him.

She quickly jumped on Lightning and raced through the woods faster than she has ever ridden.

The night became lighter and lighter as Jessie continued to ride through the forest.

As she approached the cave where Woody was last seen, Jessie's heart raced and it felt like her heart was in her throat. She couldn't tell if her feelings were good or bad because she didn't know what she would find. All she knew was that she had to find him, even if she found him dead.

Jumping off Lightning, she raced into the cave.

The only problem she had was that Woody was nowhere to be seen.

Jessie's heart sank back down. Her emotions were almost at its breaking point because she had gone a full day worrying about if Woody was dead or alive and then risked her life even more escaping Bart to rescue Woody. Finally, having some hope in him being alive made her determined to find him, but now that he was nowhere to be seen made her emotions clash together.

She didn't know whether to cry or not.

Jessie just sat on the rock floor, brought her knees to her chest and look aimlessly into the cave.

All her efforts in saving Woody were wasted.

Not noticing Lightning pick up an object, she continued to just sit and rock back and forth.

Finally something brought her back from her trance when she saw a hat land in front of her feet.

Jessie examined the hat and realized that is was in fact Woody's hat.

She looked up and saw Lightning standing right in front of her and she gave a couple of grunts.

"Lightning! Where did you find this?" Jessie said picking up the hat in amazement.

She dusted off Woody's hat and held it tightly in her arms.

This brought back hope for Jessie. Hope that maybe that Woody was still alive and that she could find him once again. She looked around and realized that the cave had been cleared out by something, or someone. Some on the money that Bart had laying around had been gone, and a few supplies were missing.

Just outside of the cave, Jessie found two set of horse tracks that lead opposite from where the bandits had taken her.

Jessie leaped onto Lightning and raced off into the woods, following the tracks in hope that they would lead to Woody. Her heart once again jumped into her throat.

Bart's POV

_EARILIER THAT MORNING APROXAMATLY SIX HOURS AFTER JESSIE LEFT_

"WAKE UP YOU LAZY BASTARDS!" Bart erupted.

All the bandits woke up with a fright at Bart's yelling.

"SHE'S ESCAPED! GO FIND 'ER!" Bart yelled at the bandits scrambling on their horses.

"FIND 'ER AT ANY COST! I WANT 'ER DEAD OR ALIVE!" Bart said as he raced through the forest with the bandits right by his side.

"I'll kill 'er! No…I'll make 'er watch as I kill 'er mother, and THEN I'll kill 'er!" Bart said vengefully to himself.

**A/N Hope ya'll liked it! I think it's pretty good if I do say so myself. ;) Again, I love hearin' from you guys! Reviews make me happy! :D Love ya'll! A/N**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: of course i don't own Toy Story! If i did it would have had a different ending... :P **

**A/N Wow...that was fast! hehe. I know it's not as long as the last chapter, but i hope it's just as good! A/N**

Chapter 11

The sun had barley reached the peak of the mountains when Buzz decided to wake Woody up for the long day of traveling. He knew that they wouldn't be able to get as far as they wanted because Woody was still badly beat up, but he also knew that they couldn't waste any more time waiting for Woody to heal.

"Woody wake up. It's time to head out…we got a long day ahead of us," Buzz said gently shaking Woody's shoulder.

"Five more minutes…" Woody mumbled and turned his head away from Buzzes hand that was shaking his shoulder.

Buzz rolled his eyes and smirked.

"C'mon Woody, we have a long day ahead of us, and we won't be able to get as far as we need to because of your wounds…plus, we still need to rescue Jessie. She's counting on us to save her," Buzz stated.

When Woody heard Buzz speak about Jessie, his eyes flew wide open. He sat up as quickly as he could without hurting himself.

The sudden movement caught Buzz off-guard and he quickly leaned backwards to avoid Woody's head colliding with his face. This caused Buzz to lose his balance and fall right on his butt.

He looked at Woody half confused and embarrassed that he fell.

Woody looked over and saw Buzz on the ground who was giving him a strange look.

This caused Woody to feel embarrassed because he didn't mean to react that way so quickly.

"Sorry," was all that Woody could say at that moment.

"Uh…it's okay…" Buzz replied a little confused.

Buzz immediately got up and helped Woody stand to his feet.

"How ya feelin'?" Buzz asked.

The reaction on Woody's face was all that he really needed, to answer his question, but he wanted to make sure that Woody was up for the long day of traveling.

"Could be better…could be worse…how long does it take for ribs to heal?" Woody asked out of curiosity because his ribs felt like someone was pressing hundreds of knives into his chest.

"Well, with your injuries, I'd say about two or three weeks….two weeks if you're lucky, but they take time to heal," Buzz said scanning Woody's injured chest.

"How long has it been since, this, happened?" Woody asked motioning to his chest and hoping he didn't have long to go, but he was doubtful.

"Umm…well I found you three days ago…so I'm guessing a good four days total…" Buzz replied.

"Dammit!" was all that Woody could say.

"Ya…well, all we can do is make sure you don't hurt yourself further. You need to heal as fast as possible if we are to stop Bart and save Jessie,"

"You're right…well let's go then. I can't sit here and do nothin' anymore," Woody said getting onto Thunder.

Buzz then jumped onto Buster.

Unlike Thunder, Buster was a little smaller. His coat was a deep red/brown and he had black muzzle.

"Take me to the last place you saw Bart. We should be able to find them soon enough." Woody said intently.

Woody was ready to face Bart again. This time he would kill him without giving him a chance to speak a word. Even if he had to shoot him from behind, Woody wouldn't allow him to hurt Jessie or anyone else anymore.

He was out for blood this time. Woody didn't care how badly he was hurt or how much pain he was in; he was going to show no mercy to that bastard who stole Jessie away from him.

Buzz looked at Woody and saw that he had completely changed. He saw that his eyes were focused on one thing only. Woody's posture changed, and his facial expression changed. It was like Woody had an alter ego, and instead of a nice gentlemanly Woody, this Woody, seemed cold-hearted and blood-thirsty. This made Buzz a little uncomfortable. He didn't know what Woody was planning on doing, but he knew that he like the "old" Woody better.

Without answering him, Buzz led the way and took off on Buster.

Woody was close behind on Thunder.

He had pushed all the pain out of the way and was running on pure adrenaline, filled with revenge.

Jessie's POV

Racing through the woods, Jessie continued to follow the hoofs prints that she found at the cave, where she also discovered Woody's hat.

She rode for a good couple hours when she came across an opening in the forest.

Getting off Lightning, she examined the area.

"Someone has been here…not too long ago either…" Jessie mumbled to herself.

She found two patches of grass that had been trampled down. It looked to her like two people had slept there.

Jessie looked at the campfire and noticed that it was slightly smoldering.

"Can't be more than a couple hours old…" she whispered to herself.

She continued to search the place for a bit and until she found more tracks.

What was odd to her was that the tracks were leading back to where she had escaped from the night before.

Jessie was a bit confused because she didn't understand how Woody could be disappearing so quickly. It seemed as though he wasn't hurt. But she knew that he was very badly injured by Bart.

"How can he keep disappearing like this?" Jessie scratched her head wondering how he kept evading her.

Jessie looked back down at the tracks and wondered if she was even following Woody's tracks. There were two sets of tracks. She had to find out who was with Woody and what they wanted.

Examining the sets of tracks, she realized that if Woody got to Bart before she catches him, it would end very badly.

Jessie flung herself onto Lightning and was off once again following Woody and the mystery rider's trail.

_BACK IN DALLAS AT THE SHERIFF'S OFFICE_

The prospector was pacing back and forth in his office.

A minute passed, and then a large man walked in.

"You called, Pete?" A man with a deep, charming, New Orleans accent asked.

Pete quickly looked up and saw a large older man stand in his doorway. He was wearing a dark purple button-up shirt with rich, brown slacks on. He had a cane firmly in his grasp and a pipe in his mouth. The man wasn't wearing a hat, but was covered in short, dusty, tan hair with his white sideburns. He had a welcoming complexion and a warm, relax posture.

"Thank goodness you came!" Pete exclaimed in relief.

"What seems to be the problem? The man asked.

"It's Woody! He's been missing for about a week now and I fear the worst for him," Pete said as his voice began to shake.

"He was last seen chasing a bandit who robbed our bank. They were heading west towards the canyon…that's the last time I saw him…he should've been back days ago!" Pete was having a hard time keeping his voice down, but he couldn't help that he was worried to death for Woody.

"Now now Pete. You an' I both know that Woody is quite capable of handling himself…but this does concern me that he hasn't showed up for so long…" The man pondered the different possibilities of why Woody was gone.

"Pleas Lotso, you have to send a search party out to find Woody!" Pete pleaded.

Lotso was an expert tracker and knew almost every nook and cranny when it came to the land outside of the city. He had traveled a lot in his youth and he came across places that only people could dream of.

Lotso was the best when it came to search and rescue. He even started his own academy for people who wanted to become rangers. But not everyone could get in because it demanded so much physical and mental strength.

"Alright. I will send out a search party the moment I leave this office. An' because we've known each other for so many years, I'll make sure, personally, that we find him." Lotso said determined.

Lotso and Pete had grown up together as teens and had even started the sheriff academy together. After a couple years in that, Lotso went off to start his own academy. Ever since then, Pete and Lotso have worked very closely with one another and had even helped each other when it came to big cases.

"Thank you Lotso! You have no idea what this means!" Pete said relieved.

He clasped his hand together and placed his hand on his forehead.

"I'm pretty sure I do old buddy," Lotso said with a smile.

"Alright, well I'm gonna go get Ken, an' we will leave this afternoon,"

"Thank you! And I will make sure that the other deputies here, will keep a watch out around town just in case he comes back," Pete said eagerly.

"Sounds like a plan…I'll see you around. I'll let you know if he shows," Lotso said as he walked out the door.

"Likewise," Pete replied.

Pete frantically gathered the other deputies and explained what was going on and how they needed to be on full alert in case Woody showed up.

Lotso raced to his academy and gathered all his rangers together. He and Ken created a plan to make the search cover more ground.

Ken was the Commander in charge of the teams. He and Lotso decided to split up and search different parts of the outlands.

"Ken, I want you an' your team to search Sunnyside first an' then spread out from there," Lotso demanded.

"But Lotso, that's not even close to where Woody was last seen…" Ken stated a bit confused.

"I know, but that's the next largest town, an' he might have gone there if he chased the bandit far enough. Who knows how far he got with that bandit. All we can do right now is guess where he may be…So I want you an' your team to search for any sign of Woody there. I will take my team an' search the canyons an' forest. We have a general direction of where they were going, so we have a chance of running into him…" Lotso stated factually.

"Okay, I'll go get my team ready," Ken said and raced out of Lotso's office.

Once both of them got their teams ready, which each consisted of five rangers, they split off to look for the lost sheriff.

**A/N Tell me what you thought about this chapter! It makes me happy to hear for ya'll! A/N**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: of course i don't own Toy Story! If i did it would have had a different ending... :P **

**A/N Another great chapter awaits! Thanks everyone who has reviewed! I love reading reviews! It makes me want to write! So, more reviews...more chapters! haha I just kid. I will write anyways, even if I don't get reviews...but they sure do make me feel good inside knowing that people like my work. XD**** A/N**

**NOTICE: I wrote it a little differently. There will be mental arguments for characters. So I hope it's not confusing. Pleas let me know. If it is, I won't do it again. THANKS!**

Chapter 12

Bart's POV

Bart and his men were ripping through the forest like a wild fire. Nothing would stop this him from finding Jessie.

He backtracked to the cave, thinking that she might have gone back to save Woody. As he approached the cave he barged inside.

"JESSIE!" Bart roared.

He swiftly looked around the cave and saw that Woody was in fact gone, and there was no sign, that he could see, of where they had gone.

"She probably left for 'er ma's!" Bart yelled to his men.

He then ran to his horse and jumped on as quickly as his plump body would let him.

"How we gonna catch 'er now M.P.?" Porker asked, "she's way ahead of us, and even if we do get to 'er ma's she's gonna be long gone…"

Bart turned his head sharply at Porker. He was filled with too much evil to consider whether or not they would be too late or not. The only thing on his mind was to get Jessie. He didn't care how long it took him, he was going to catch her and kill her for her betrayal.

"Well then you better hope we catch 'er before she gets to 'er ma's! Your lives depend on it! If I can't have 'er blood, I'm spillin' everyone else's blood!" Bart said like he was a rabid dog.

The other bandits were taken back by his statement and knew that he meant what he said. They were now more determined than ever to find Jessie.

Bart then raced off back into the forest with his men behind him.

Woody's POV

It was early in the afternoon and Buzz and Woody were still riding hard.

Buzz was starting to get a little concerned about Woody's condition because he knew that they should be taking it easier, even though he knew they were on a very tight schedule.

Woody kept pushing his, and Thunder's limit. He wouldn't give up; he would rather die knowing that he did all he could than getting to Jessie when it was too late.

As they rode on, Thunder began to tire out. His steps had become shorter and his breathing became louder. He started to even sway from side to side as he was running.

Buzz noticed this right away and got very worried that Woody was going to run Thunder right into the ground. He checked on Buster, and he was getting tired as well, but he wasn't nearly as exhausted as Thunder.

Buzz gained up on Woody because he had blown past Buzz to get to Jessie as fast as he could.

"Woody I think we need to stop and rest for a while!" Buzz yelled at Woody with concern.

No response.

Woody was too focused to notice anything around him. He was on a mission, and he wanted to see it done until the end.

"Woody! You really need to slow down! Thunder can't take much more! He needs to rest, and so do you!" Buzz continued persistently.

Still no response. It was as if Woody was in a trance and he couldn't hear or see Buzz who was right next to him.

At this point Buzz was becoming pissed off at Woody's ignorance and neglect.

He had an idea that came to his mind, so he gave it a shot.

"I don't think Jessie would like it if she found out that you sacrificed Thunder for her sake!" Buzz said as clearly as he could to make sure Woody heard it.

His idea worked.

Woody broke out of his trance and hesitantly looked at Buzz.

"What did you say?"

"I said that you needed to take a break. We've been making excellent time. We should be there in no time, but you need to rest before we go any farther," Buzz stated.

"Oh, alright," Woody said as he brought Thunder to a steady walk.

Thunder's breathing was as loud as, well, thunder. His head was bobbing up and down as he was catching his breath.

When Woody got off Thunder, he winced from the pain that radiated from his ribs. He had forgotten completely about his wounds during the morning that he and Buzz were riding.

"Ouch! Dammit! I forgot how much pain I was in…" Woody claimed frustrated.

"Yeah, are you okay?" Buzz questioned as he got off Buster.

"I've been better, but I think I will be alright…" Woody said as he sat down on a log.

"Well, I actually meant about earlier today…you seemed…different…like, scary different…"

Buzz couldn't find the right words to say what he meant, so he just went with what came to his mind.

Woody was taken back a little bit by what Buzz said. He hadn't noticed anything different about himself.

He took a few seconds to ponder what Buzz said, but he couldn't explain anything to him because he didn't know what to say.

"What do you mean "different"?" Woody asked.

"Well I mean that you seemed like a completely different person this morning, and just now when I tried to get your attention, I had to yell at you for you to even notice me," Buzz said trying to make Woody understand what he meant.

"You did?" was all that Woody could say.

Woody was surprised at what was being said to him. He had no idea how, out-of-it he was.

"Yeah…what's going on?" Buzz asked slowly so he wouldn't confuse Woody anymore.

Woody thought about his question for a minute or two and then spoke up.

"Well…I guess it's because I want to find Bart and kill him for what he's done. And I want to find Jessie and make sure she's safe," Woody said rubbing the back of his neck.

Buzz sat across from Woody on the grass and rested against his saddle.

"Bullshit," was all that Buzz replied.

"What?" How can you say that! It's true!" Woody said defending himself.

"It's more than just getting back at Bart ain't it? You're hiding something aren't you…"

"No!..." Woody said not making eye contact with Buzz.

Buzz rolled his eyes, got up and started unpacking his and Woody's saddles and got wood to build a fire.

Woody wasn't arguing, he just let Buzz do his thing while he pondered what Buzz said earlier.

_"He doesn't know what he's talking about! I want to get back at Bart for what he's done! Jessie never deserved any of this. That is why I wanna save her…I ain't hiding anything!"_

Woody struggled with the last thought he had, because he was deciding if he was, in fact, hiding something. He hated arguing with himself, but he couldn't find any other solution to sort out what he was thinking or feeling.

_Woody #1. What are you thinking Woody?...you know she's in trouble, real big trouble, and that's why you are trying to save her._

_Woody #2. Yeah, I know! But Buzz says I also am hiding something…he doesn't know what he's talking about._

_Woody #1. Or does he?_

_Woody #2. What are you talking about? I'm not hiding something…_

_Woody #1. Yes you are. Don't deny it._

_Woody #2. Deny what? I'm not denying anything!_

_Woody #1. Yes you are! And quick stalling! You know exactly what I'm talking about!_

_Woody #2. No I'm not…_

_Woody #1. Woody, you like Jessie. She is an amazingly brave young woman, no other person, let alone another woman would be as strong as she is in her situation. You knew from the moment she told you her story that you had some kind of feeling for her. Maybe it didn't start out romantically or anything, but this past week has been crazy! Remember the time at the lake? You had so much fun playing around with Jessie. She made you feel like you could be your goofy ole self. She makes you feel free and alive because she herself wishes to be free. But when you and her were at the lake, you made HER feel free and alive, and THAT made YOU feel the same way! Yeah, sure it might have only been a week or so since you guys met, but under these circumstances…it feels like you've known her for years…am I right?_

_Woody #2. Yeah…you're right._

_Woody #1. I thought so…and to be honest, you could never be like this around Bo…she is a wonderful woman…and we both love her dearly, but I don't think it's the same kind of love anymore…_

_Woody #2. But we've known Bo for so long! I can't just leave her like that!_

_Woody #1. But Bo doesn't make you feel the same…don't try to deny to yourself again, and plus, you haven't even told her how you felt…you are a sad excuse for a cowboy, let alone a sheriff._

_Woody #2. I know, I know…but-_

_Woody #1. No more buts. Besides, how much longer do you think you have if Jessie's life is at stake? What if you never get to tell her how you feel? Could you live with yourself if you found out she wasn't alive tomorrow…of course there are times to express one's feelings, but that's not my point right now._

_Woody #2. Ya, I get what you're trying to say, okay. I need to save Jessie, kill Bart, go to her ma's house, and then tell her how I feel._

_Woody #1. Great plan partner! And remember, even if she doesn't feel the same way about you, don't take it too hard…she's been through a lot and probably will need time to rest from it all before she can decide whether to like you or not._

_Woody #2. Good point…I'll just have to wait for the right moment…I guess._

_Woody #1. Yeah…_

As Buzz was setting up the fire, he noticed that Woody was struggling with something in himself. He guessed it was from something he said.

"You alright there Woody?" Buzz asked somewhat mused.

"Huh?...uh…yeah, just fine." Woody said looking up to Buzz.

"Sorry if I came across too…bluntly, I just wanted to make sure you're…emotionally capable of handling this."

"What the hell are you talking about? Of course I am…and why did you say I was hiding something? It's none of your business to know if I am "emotionally" capable. Of course I am!" Woody was getting a little worked.

"Didn't mean anything by it…just wanted to make sure –"

"Thanks but no thanks, Buzz, I'm fine."

"Sorry I asked…"

Buzz then got up and walked away to go check on the horses. He left Woody alone to whatever he was doing.

Woody rolled his eyes and huffed as Buzz walked away.

"I'm fine." He said to himself.

He then mentally slapped himself for getting upset at Buzz.

_Woody # 1. All Buzz wanted to do was make sure I was okay…why did I make such a big deal out of it?...maybe I'm not emotionally capable of handling this. _

_Woody # 2. Yeah…why are you upset?...that kinda didn't make sense why you got angry all of a sudden._

_Woody # 1. I know, I know. I'm probably just stressed that I can't seem to do anything right…all I've done was let Jessie get taken away from Bart._

_Woody # 2. That's not true…okay, well, you screwed that one up pretty badly._

_Woody # 1. Thanks…_

_Woody # 2. But you've done more than that…you gave Jessie hope…well…before you got beat up by Bart…now she probably thinks you're dead…_

_Woody #1. GREAT! NOW JESSIE THINKS I'M DEAD! How will that give her hope? She probably gave up all the hope she had before! THAAAAT'S JUST GREAT WOODY! WAY TO SCREW THINGS UP EVEN MORE!_

At that point, Woody gave up thinking to himself. He needed something else to keep his mind off of Jessie and Bart so that he could rest in peace mentally. Woody gently lowered himself to the ground and lay in the soft grass where he stared aimlessly at the sky.

Jessie's POV

Her heart was pounding; she was flying through forests and valleys to find her lost sheriff.

The tracks were endless. Jessie wondered how far Woody and the mystery rider could have gone. She was just hoping that they hadn't caught up to Bart because she knew that Bart would kill Woody for real if he knew that he was still alive.

Not stopping for anything, Jessie rode on through the morning and into the afternoon.

"Where are you Woody?" Jessie said to herself.

When she spoke it out loud, she didn't realize how shaky her voice was when she said his name.

At this point, her mind was racing through dozens of possibilities of what could happen to him if he caught up to Bart before she did. All of them ended tragically.

She shook her head and decided not to think about the bad that could happen. Instead she thought back a few days ago when she was last with Woody.

_She thought of the first time they met and how Woody caught her by his lasso. _

_She thought about how they had quite a struggle when she tried to get away from him._

_She thought about the first night they had together and how she hated him at first._

_Jessie's mind then thought about how Woody had told her that they had to hide from the strangers in the cave that first night. Good thing they did, because it was Bart and his men._

She mentally thanked Woody for unknowingly saving her.

_Then her mind skipped to the next night that they were together and how they had to share her blanket._

Jessie then made a "ouch" face, remembering that she hurt Woody when she woke up.

She then mentally apologized again to Woody for hurting him in that particular spot.

As Jessie continued to race through the woods, her mind, raced a thousand times faster through the memorizes of the previous days.

_Jessie thought about taking Woody her secret place and seeing his face when he first laid eyes on it._

She smiled as she thought about Woody's reaction.

His reaction had made Jessie feel very special, like she had done something right for once.

_Jessie then thought about the fun time that she had in the lake with Woody._

_She still couldn't believe that he would just dunk her the way he did, but she was glad he did because she hadn't had fun in a long time and Jessie was happy to have had a moment of pure freedom._

_Jessie wished that that would have never had ended. She wanted to turn back time and go back to where she and Woody could just be themselves._

Thinking of the lake brought her to realize that she started to feel something for the sheriff. He had given her something that no one ever could've. He was the only one that actually offered to help her…at his own will too.

Of course…he was the only one who could catch her…but she was also glad that he wasn't like any of the other sheriffs that would have just thrown her in jail.

Jessie shook her head clear of all her thoughts and said to herself, "Hold up there cowgirl…you've got to slow down, you've been through…well and are still going through a lot. The last thing you need is to get your feelin's all tied up."

Jessie then began to argue with herself.

_Jessie # 1. Yeah slow down...you need to get yourself out of this here mess before you even think of having feelin's for anyone…especially Woody._

_Jessie # 2. I know, I know…but I can't help but wonder…there's just something about him–_

_Jessie # 1. No, don't you even start…you have to stay focused. You need to find Woody, get to your ma's house and kill Bart._

_Jessie # 2. I know…but, he makes me feel free. I've never felt that way before…last time I did was when Pa was alive…that was years ago…and it was nice feelin' free again. He isn't like anyone I've ever met before. He was willing to die for me…I could never repay him enough for that._

_Jessie # 1. Yeah…but c'mon Jessie, he's just a guy…plus, I remind you, that you are in a HUGE pile of shit that you need to get yourself out of first…and you are only 20. He's probably…what 30? Maybe 27?_

_Jessie # 2. I know…but I can't help but feel like there's something…I can handle my feelin's. I know that we will be able to get out of this situation…but we just need to figure out how. Woody has given me hope…something that I haven't had in a long time…and I ain't givin' it up. Not even if it kills me._

_Jessie # 1. Alright…well, let's go find Woody! Nothings gonna stop us now! And…I do feel like there's something about Woody that makes me feel something…_

_Jessie # 2. Love?_

As soon as Jessie said that word in her head, her cheeks must have turned ten shades of red.

But she knew that that was the right word for what she felt. She didn't care if Woody felt the same way or not, she wasn't gonna give up on the man that given back her freedom.

Jessie rode up on a hill and slowed Lightning down to a steady walk. She came to a clearing and saw, from a distance, a man and two horses.

Jessie saw a black and brown blob in the clearing and knew that the black blob was Thunder. The man, however, was too short to be Woody, but she had a feeling that Woody was there.

She had reached her destination and was happy to see that Bart was nowhere in sight.

Jessie jumped off Lightning and began sprinting to finally close the distance between her and her lost sheriff.

**A/N SO...how did you guys like it? PLEASE REVIEW! I love hearing what you guys like/dislike about it!...well more on the "Like" side of it. :3 But both are welcome. A/N**


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: of course i don't own Toy Story! If i did it would have had a different ending... :P **

**A/N Hey ya'll! So guess what! My aunt had her baby this weekend! YAY! :3 So cute! i just thought you guys would like to know...just in case you were wondering why I haven't updated in a week or so...I was just getting ahead in school and looking after my other cousins while she was in the hospital.**

**Anywho...here you are. This chapter is a little fluffy. :) Next chapter may or may not be...there's endless possibilities in my head...I'll decide soon enough. A/N**

Chapter 13

Jessie's POV

She ran as fast as her legs could carry her across the grassy hill; she wasn't going to let anything stop her from reaching Woody. It had been too long, not knowing if he was alright or not.

Jessie ran up behind the mystery rider and asked out of breath. "Is Woody here?"

"Yeah, he's over there," he pointed.

Buzz's POV

Buzz wasn't even paying attention to the mystery voice that came up behind him. He had been too busy brushing Buster to notice someone running up behind him.

When he heard the voice come up from behind, he didn't think to turn around. He just reacted to the question that had been asked.

A few seconds went by when Buzz looked up and turned around to see someone running from him towards the camp that he set up where Woody was at.

Buzz was really confused at this point because he had no idea where the person came from. He then saw fiery red hair pulled back in a braid swaying from side to side as the person ran.

Remembering seeing hair like that a couple days ago made him realize that it was Jessie.

Shocked from the sudden realization, he sprinted after her.

"JESSIE!" Buzz yelled.

Jessie's POV

Jessie was too focused to notice Buzz chasing after her or hear her name being yelled. She needed to find Woody. Something in her, made legs run faster and her eyes scanned every detail of the grassy valley to find Woody.

Woody's POV

Woody had closed his eyes and dozed off under the blue sky.

He had mentally and physically exhausted himself from chasing after Bart to find Jessie.

As he was beginning to fall into a deep sleep he heard a faint voice call his name.

"Woody!"

Woody thought it sounded like Jessie, but he assumed that it was all in his head since she had been on his mind the whole time since Bart had taken her.

"WOODY!"

The voice was getting louder and closer. This time Woody opened his eyes, sat up and looked around to make sure he wasn't tricking himself.

When he saw nothing, he cursed at his mind, tricking him that made him think Jessie was near. His heart sank when he thought about how he probably wouldn't ever see her again.

Woody slumped back down and closed his eyes.

"**WOODY!"**

He shot back up and scanned the area. He knew for sure that he wasn't imagining the voice this time. He slowly stood up and began to walk towards the voice that was calling his name.

"Uh…Hello?" Woody called.

He still wasn't sure if he was still imagining the voice that sounded like Jessie, but he hoped that he wasn't going crazy.

_I swear I'm going nuts…Jessie isn't here…_

Woody listened for a few more seconds but couldn't hear anything.

He huffed and turned around and started walking back to go lay down to clear his mind.

**"WOODY!"**

Woody turned his head in the direction that the voice was coming from and he then saw a figure come running towards him.

"Oh great…now I'm seeing things!" Woody said as his heart sunk even lower.

As the figure got closer and closer, Woody began to realize that he wasn't going crazy. It really was Jessie who was running towards him!

"Jessie?...Jessie!" Woody exclaimed with disbelief.

How had she escaped from Bart, let alone find him?

If Woody could have, he would have sprinted just as fast, if not faster to see Jessie. But his condition limited his movement and speed.

He began to walk as fast as his body would let him to reach Jessie.

"Woody!" Jessie exclaimed as she came up to him.

"Jessie!" Woody called as his heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest.

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you!" Jessie said to Woody about to burst into joyful tears.

Jessie wanted to give Woody the biggest hug that she could, but she knew that he had been hurt by Bart, and she didn't know how badly he had been hurt, so she retained her urge to leap onto Woody to give him a hug.

"Oh my God! Jessie! You have no idea how worried I was! I am beyond words right now! How did you escape? How did you find me? Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

Woody was beyond words and belief that she had actually found him! He wanted to pick her up in his arms so badly because he had been so worried about her that he was so glad to see her standing in front of him. He didn't want to let her out of his sight again. Woody wanted to hold her in his arms and not let go, but he restrained the urge because he didn't want her to feel awkward, and he didn't know if his broken ribs would allow such an action.

Jessie couldn't help but smile from ear to ear. She was just as glad to see Woody as he was to see her.

"Don't worry about that right now. I'm here, and you are alive, and that's all that matters right now."

Jessie was right, Woody didn't really care about how she got here, he was just glad that she was here, safe with him again.

Woody gave the biggest smile he could back at Jessie.

"Oh! I forgot something! Be right back!"

And just like that, Jessie took off running away from Woody.

This left Woody confused. He just got Jessie back, and now she just disappeared from him.

As soon as she was out of sight, he saw Buzz race up towards him.

"Woody!...Jessie!...Saw her!...Really fast!...You see?...Left…can't find her!..." was all that Buzz was able to say since he was out of breath from running after Jessie.

Woody looked down at Buzz who was trying to catch his breath.

"Yeah, she'll be right back…I hope."

"Hope? She better come back!" Buzz said annoyed because he had spent that whole time running after her, only to have her disappear again.

Just then Woody and Buzz saw Jessie ride up on Lightning.

Jessie leaped off Lightning and had something behind her back.

"Here, you forgot somethin'," Jessie said as she handed Woody his hat.

"My hat! Thanks Jess," He said in a soothing, gentle voice.

She gave him a warm smile in return.

Woody attempted to put his hat on, but he found it near impossible because his ribs wouldn't allow him to reach that high.

He winched in pain and quickly lowered his hat back down.

"Here let me help with that," Jessie said sympathetically as she took Woody's hat, "what's a cowboy without his hat anyway…"

She gently placed Woody's hat on his head and adjusted it so that it wouldn't fall off.

As she brought her hands down from his hat, her eyes met Woody's.

Jessie stared into his dark chocolate brown eyes, and he lost himself in her glistening emerald eyes.

Both of them stared into each other's eyes completely oblivious to the very confused ranger who was watching the whole thing.

Woody couldn't look away. It was as if he had been put back into a trance, forced by Jessie's mesmerizing eyes.

He was no longer questioning whether or not he liked Jessie now. Woody was sure that he loved her and he didn't want to lose her again. As he looked into her eyes, his hands were slowly making their way to her back. He didn't want to let her go ever again.

Jessie was caught up in his inviting gaze. His warm eyes made her heart melt. She felt as if all her problems had disappeared into the horizon. Jessie felt free again. Looking into his eyes made one thing clear to her; she never wanted to lose him again.

Still trapped in his eyes, Jessie made no attempt to struggle when she felt his hand reach around her and placed on the middle portion of her back. She instinctively placed her hand on his shoulders.

Woody didn't fight when he felt Jessie place her hand on his shoulders. In fact it felt quite natural to him. He didn't want this moment to end. Woody didn't care what was going around him at the moment because he was too caught up in Jessie's alluring eyes.

Unknowingly to them, they had started leaning closer to each other.

Buzz was just observing from a couple of feet away, completely taken back at what was happening right in front of him.

"Eh-Hemm," Buzz coughed.

Their trance was suddenly broken, and both of them stumbled back away from one another and looked completely embarrassed.

"Hello…remember me?" Buzz said annoyed.

Woody and Jessie looked at Buzz in a strange way and then looked back at each other.

"Umm…sorry Buzz…well…I'll just be heading back now, I should get some rest," Woody said embarrassed.

"Yeah…I should get some rest too…been a long day an' all…" Jessie said trying to break the awkwardness.

Buzz just rolled his eyes and walked back to finish grooming Buster.

As he walked away, Woody and Jessie were left by themselves.

They looked at each other in awkward silence, and then walked back to the camp Buzz set up.

"So, how did you escape?" Woody asked to change the subject.

"Well as soon as the bandits fell asleep, I stuck around to find something to cut the binding they had on me –"

"They tied you up?" Woody asked angrily.

He hated how Bart thought he owed everything, and he hated that he tied her up like she was a dog. Bart had given him yet another reason for Woody to hate him.

"Yeah, they did…but once I found a knife, I cut myself loose and took off looking for you,"

"Well, I'm glad you are okay. Jessie, you have no idea how worried I was about you," he said looking down at the ground.

"Me? Well what about you? You could've died. I was scared to death, not knowing if you were gonna live or not. Don't scare me like that again," Jessie stated sternly looking straight at Woody.

He caught a glimpse of her piercing green eyes staring into his.

"I promise never to scare you like that again. If it wasn't for Buzz…I'm afraid I wouldn't be here. You should thank him for saving me,"

"I'm just glad that you're alive…Not knowing if you were alive or not was killin' me…I didn't know how much longer I could've lasted not knowing if you were still alive."

Jessie looked down at the ground and started tugging on her braid. She didn't want Woody to see that she had begun to cry.

It's not that she was sad, but all the stress of not knowing if he was alive or not, had finally caught up to her, and she couldn't stop herself from tearing up.

Woody and Jessie walked to the camp and sat down next to the fire that Buzz made earlier.

Woody looked over at Jessie, who was sitting next to him, and noticed that she was very quiet and upset.

He scooted in front of her and lifted up her chin gently with his hand.

Her glistening green eyes had now turned to gloomy misty-green eyes.

"Oh…Jess…" Woody said compassionately.

Woody didn't know what was causing her to cry, but he knew that he didn't have to know in order to comfort her.

He then placed himself next to Jessie and protectively wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

Jessie didn't struggle from his action. Instead she leaned her head into the side of Woody's neck and remained there for quite some time.

She just had to let everything out. Jessie was tired of being tired, she was exhausted mentally from worrying about Woody, and she was ready to be rid of Bart and his slimy bandits and get back the life she used to have.

Woody didn't say a word while Jessie was crying on his shoulder. He just sat there and held her.

Woody promised himself to never let her go again. He wasn't gonna let Bart hurt her ever again.

**A/N Hope Ya'll liked it! Send in reviews or suggestions! They make me happy. :D - see! A/N**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: Do I really have to keep telling ya'll that I don't own anything...except my story idea...and that the characters belong to Pixar...**

**A/N I AM SOOOOO SORRY EVERYBODY! To sum up the reason why I haven't updated is this: New Baby, Midterms, TONS of homework, Job, and Grandma visiting.**

**But here it is! I was gonna go longer, but thought it was a good place to stop. A/N**

Chapter 14

Jessie had been crying for so long that she had exhausted herself to the point of falling asleep on Woody's shoulder.

Buzz had come back to tend the fire and help set up more room for all three of them to sleep.

As Buzz was tending the fire, noticed that Jessie was asleep on the sheriff.

"She doing okay there Woody?"

Woody looked down to the sleeping cowgirl and then back up to Buzz.

"I think so…she cried herself to sleep so she must have been exhausted."

The sun was still in the sky, but it was getting darker every hour. Buzz had taken care of the horses and camp while Woody was with Jessie throughout the day.

"Yeah, I bet…you want me to move her for yah?" Buzz asked noticing Woody was about to pass out from exhaustion as well.

"That would be great. Thanks…did you get her blanket from her saddle?"

"Yup, already set up," Buzz said pointing to Jessie's blanket that was diagonal from them but still next to the fire.

"Great. Thanks Buzz," Woody thanked tiredly.

"Sure thing."

Buzz then got up and gently took the sleeping cowgirl from Woody and placed her down next to the fire on her blanket.

"How you doing?" Buzz said as he settled Jessie down.

"Still hurts, but better than a few days ago," Woody replied knowing that Buzz was asking about his broken ribs.

"Good. You should get some rest now…and now that Jessie is with us and not Bart, we can take it easy tomorrow."

Woody lay down carefully on his back and took deep half-breaths because he still couldn't breathe normally from the pain that still radiated in his chest every time he took a breath of air.

"Good, I wouldn't mind staying put for a while…"

Woody closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

NEXT MORNING

Jessie's POV

The sun was rising over the mountains as the three of them slept.

Jessie was tossing and turning as the light hit her eye lids.

She suddenly sat up and gasped.

"Woody!"

Jessie quickly looked around her surrounding not sure where she was.

It took her a second or so to spot the sheriff sounds asleep next to a burnt out fire.

Taking a deep breath, she remembered that what happened the other day wasn't a dream. She had actually found Woody. She was safe and out of Bart's grubby hands.

Jessie laid back down and tried to go back to sleep, but she found it impossible.

So she got up and wandered around the campsite.

She found the horses grazing a ways off and decided to walk over to them.

Woody's POV

As the sun warmed the sleeping sheriff with its inviting rays, he began to stir.

Woody groaned and placed his arm over his eyes and tried to drift back off to sleep.

Suddenly he thought of yesterday and how Jessie had found him out in the middle of nowhere.

"Jessie" Woody gasped.

His eyes snapped open and he scanned the campsite everywhere to make sure that what happened the other day was real and not a dream.

He glanced down around the fire and saw Jessie's blanket but no Jessie.

Woody sat up and looked down at Buzz who was still sleeping, so he got up and searched for the missing cowgirl.

He wasn't sure where Jessie had gone and couldn't find her anywhere.

A few minutes had past and Woody still couldn't find Jessie anywhere. He hoped that she hadn't been taken by Bart while they were sleeping.

This thought caused Woody to panic, so he quickly went to where he and Buzz left the horses.

He then saw Jessie sitting on a boulder talking and petting to the horses a ways off.

Woody gave out a sigh of relief to see that she was okay.

He decided to walk over to her and see how she was doing.

As he got closer he saw her glance at him and gave him the biggest smile he had ever seen.

"Woody!" Jessie said as she jumped off the boulder.

"Mornin' Jess," Woody said as she stopped in front of him.

"How ya doin'?" Jessie said motioning to his ribs.

"Eh…better, but I'm still pretty sore though…but anyways, how are you this morning?" Woody asked.

"I'm fine…just came out here to have a little quiet time. I can't remember the last time I've had time to myself ," Jessie said rubbing her arm.

"OH, well I can go then. I don't wanna bother you," Woody said starting to turn around.

"No! It's okay," Jessie quickly replied as she grabbed Woody's arm and stopped him.

Woody gave Jessie an odd look.

She suddenly felt extremely embarrassed by her action and hastily let go of his arm.

"I-I mean…I wouldn't mind the company…but you don't have to stay if you don't want too," Jessie said glancing up and down at Woody and tugging on her braid.

"I don't mind at all," Woody told Jessie with a smile.

He was glad that she wanted his company. Woody was happy to have Jessie back and he would spend as much time with her as he possibly could.

Jessie and Woody sat on the boulder that she had sat on earlier and talked for what seemed like hours.

Jessie had asked Woody about how he had escaped the cave, and Woody told her how Buzz had found him after following her because he saw Bart and his bandits running through the forest like wild fire.

She had also asked him if he had any plans on getting rid of Bart and how they were going to save her ma.

Woody had to be honest and tell her that he hadn't thought of anything else besides her for the past few days.

This made Jessie blush a few shades of red when she heard this, but she did her best to not show it.

She was beyond grateful of Woody and Buzz's help to save her and her ma. She couldn't thank Woody enough for what he was doing for her.

Woody on the other hand couldn't think of anything less he could do. He committed himself to help her no matter what. He didn't care about getting even with Jessie. The main thing he cared about was Jessie.

While the two continued to talk, they were unaware of the approaching figure wielding a loaded shotgun with an uncontrollable hunger for blood.

**A/N Hope Ya'll liked it! Send in reviews or suggestions! They make me happy. :D - see! A/N**


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